In this respect, it is no different from the CH-46 Sea Knight or the CH-53E Super Stallion. Violation of the NATOPS manual or the maintenance publications is going to cause a fatal crash.
On April 8, 2000, 19 Marines were killed, many of them just kids. One of those Marines on board that night was my son.
Please accept my condolences on your loss.
It is just a matter of time before another goes down, taking someone else's kids to their graves.
Again, the same can be said of the current tactical lift aircraft used by the Marine Corps. Should we dispense with the concepts of vertical envelopment and operational maneuver from the sea and go back to one-dimensional beach assaults?
The powers that be don't care about these young Marines who have to fly in Ospreys, or the families left behind in agonizing grief when they die. Why should they care? It's not their loved ones being forced to board this death trap. As it has proven all too well, when it crashes, there is no hope for survival.
Look at the survival statistics for a Sea Knight or a Super Stallion. They are just as lethal in a crash--the presumption is that all aboard will perish, and any survivors are treated as God's grace.
While those who push for the Osprey sit around their holiday tables, or share in various family celebrations, we, the victims of their greed,
I have no financial interest in the Osprey; I served eight years in Marine Corps aviation, and I know what a deathtrap the Sea Knight has become. Thank you for your slander.
I wish that when Col. Schultz shares in his next family celebration that he is aware of those of us whose lives are left shattered. If he would not put his child on an MV-22 Osprey and send that child through the same maneuvers that my son and the others went through, then he should never put someone else's child in that same danger.
OK, so Col. Schulz should dragoon his children into the Marine Corps, eh?
My son did not sign up with the Corps to be dead in 14 months.
Nobody does. Unfortunately, some always do.
When the recruiter came to my house to talk to me about my son going to boot camp early, I voiced to him my concerns about my son's safety.
He said, "Ma'am, we would never put your son in harms way".
Excuse me...this is where I must hoist the "Bravo Sierra" flags.
My recruiter sat all of us down and made it 100% crystal-clear that we could be called to combat duty at any time, that even "routine peacetime training" had its dangers, and that the USMC was NOT the Boy Scouts.
...I served eight years in Marine Corps aviation....I can and do appreciate that. What was your job in Marine Corps aviation?