Posted on 01/01/2020 4:38:58 PM PST by artichokegrower
Marine commanders did not act on dozens of pleas for additional manpower, machinery and time. When a training exercise ended in death, leadership blamed the very men they had neglected.
(Excerpt) Read more at propublica.org ...
Same as Kate Steinle and Benghazi. I would say it’s mostly leftists but nobody cares until it’s too late.
A longer excerpt would have been nice. You can usually go up to half the article — not to exceed 300 words.
More fallout from ignoring the Constitution.
Obama is not a natural born citizen.
All of the officers he promoted need to be cashiered.
Only those who agreed with transgenderizing our military were promoted.
The December 2018 flight was part of a week of hastily planned exercises that would test how prepared Fighter Attack Squadron 242 was for war with North Korea. But the entire squadron, not just Resilard, had been struggling for months to maintain their basic skills. Flying a fighter jet is a highly perishable skill, but training hours had been elusive. Repairs to jets were delayed. Pleadings up the chain of command for help and relief went ignored.
“Everyone believes us to be under-resourced, under-manned,” the squadron’s commander wrote to his superiors months earlier.
And now, in perhaps the world’s most volatile theater, a Marine Corps general had ordered up a rushed set of exercises. The aviators in the air over the Pacific, investigators later found, had been given so little time to adjust their sleep schedules in order to fly at night that inside their F/A-18D Hornets that night it was as if they were legally drunk...
It’s possible Resilard’s night vision goggles malfunctioned. They were a known menace. In fact, they were so problematic — the image could blur, even accidentally turn upside down — that the Air Force had recommended they not be fielded at all. The Marine Corps did so anyway.
“Oh … sheeitt … what are they gonna do?” the tanker pilot, still excited, said over the intercom, unaware Resilard was in danger.
Then Resilard corrected back. For 11 seconds, his jet dove down and to the left, straight for the tanker. One of the Marines in the second Hornet tried to radio a warning to Resilard but fumbled in activating the communications line.
The jet lanced the side of the tanker; the impact was shattering. Smith slammed into his Hornet’s canopy. He instantly yanked the ejection handle, activating the rockets under his and Resilard’s seats. The force of being launched out into the night sky ripped the helmet and goggles off Resilard’s head.
From the cockpit of the second Hornet, all Wilson could see below him was fire. He watched the burning tanker fall for 10 seconds. At 12,000 feet, it disappeared into a thick marine layer. The clouds glowed red. Five Marines were fatally trapped on board. All that could be heard over their intercom was wind whipping in and men hollering.
His parachute deployed, Smith began a 15,000-foot fall. He shot off flares into the night sky hoping someone would see, pausing when he passed through a freezing layer in the sky and his hands went numb. He struggled unsuccessfully to get his steel-toe boots off before he hit the water.
It exposes again the risk taken by our enlisted men and officers when commanders don't pay attention to the lack of maintenance and training required by those on the front lines.
While this happened in Dec 2018, it's roots go back to 2013.
Can we blame the politicians in charge back then? Sure.
But it won't do anything to change the families of these men who won't be coming back.
Thanks for the post. Read whole article/story.
Bad stuff happens all over when society/culture/military gets complacent and casual and overly comfortable.
The media needs to investigate and do much more than bad mouth Trump and hug the Dems. Long read but interesting. Most who were in military can identify with how such things work.
Certainly Obama's defense policies and funding for defense were a major factor in this accident and the loss of Marine lives. Other factors appear to have been present in the squadron and with their superior commanders. Like most training accidents, multiple errors, executed in a specific sequence, resulted in the accident.
I am left with the impression that the squadron and her aviators were not prepared to execute this training mission. I also believe that the Squadron Commander was aware of the shortcomings, but carried on. Commanders make these kind of decisions throughout their command tour and when things go wrong, they usually get the blame. The fundamental causes of this accident can be laid squarely at the feet of the Commander in Chief, the DoD leadership, and the leadership of the III MEF down to the Squadron level.
This should make every Marine sick to his stomach.
The scramble to rescue Resilard and Smith had been painfully problematic. The Americans responsible for coordinating rescue with the Japanese did not even have contact information for their Japanese counterparts handy.
It would not be until 4:06 a.m. — two and a half hours after the crash — that the first Japanese UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter took off from Hamamatsu Air Base, more than 200 miles away.
“It would probably surprise the American public to know there are not any American search-and-rescue people on standby for a multitude of forces deployed on mainland Japan,” said Compton, who followed the search for his men that night from their ready room on base. “It’s all totally dependent upon the government of Japan. We found out the hard way.”
Of the Japanese, he said: “They are not in their squadrons ready to walk to an airplane when they hear a call. No, they’re at home. They’re at home having to drive into work, figure out where to go, fire up an airplane and get out there.”
With so many US ships and planes in the area, the US Navy needs to either run its own SAR, or they need to better coordinate with Japan with an agreement where the pilots aren't sitting in bed at home.
Machines are getting a LOT of wear and tear. The older they get, the more maintenance they need.
Long read but it did it. The whole article is familiar to anyone involved in the military, gooberment or big business. Almost always at the top of the findings is that none of the brass get chit on them and are almost always promoted with glowing references to their superb leadership qualities and vision. I used to think that was sour grapes but after 40 years of it in various capacities and levels I know it to be the truth more often than not. The higher grades are infectious and beguiling. Those that recognize problems and lack of mission readiness don’t get to stay on seat very long and they sure don’t get promoted.
An O-6 or above that is not as full of crap as a Christmas goose is a rare bird. Much easier and likely correct to paint them all as show boats and self-promoting political animals. O-5s that are not that way and full of big smiles, glowing reports and measured but fawning attention to superiors don’t become O-6s. If you have a performance problem with a subordinate you are paid to correct it and if you can’t correct it, well, who is to blame?
Our aircraft have been flown into the ground and you can’t just keep patching them up. You sure cant keep patching them up with used Yellow Tag parts. 1/3 of the aircraft ready to fly is not combat ready. Who is kidding who?
Dragging the dead through the mud is easy as is crucifying subordinate commanders. The perfumed princes who are so aware of real problems but still demand that operations go on are the real guilty parties but they never get touched.
Sickening. Criminal.
Thanks for the article. It is a shame and a disgrace that this goes on, especially given how much we spend on defense, and how precious our young warriors are to us.
bkmk
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