Posted on 06/10/2021 9:23:52 AM PDT by PROCON
A Marine Corps general has been permanently relieved of duty after the service determined he failed to properly train Marines and sailors, leading to the deaths of nine troops when an amphibious vehicle sank off the coast of Southern California last year.
On Wednesday, the Marine Corps confirmed Maj. Gen. Robert F. Castellvi, the former Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division had been relieved of his command. “He will not return to that position,” Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Andrew Wood said in a statement Wednesday, reported by Business Insider.
Wood added Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger “took adverse administration action against him.”
According to officials, Castellvi was first suspended in April following the deadly but preventable training accident 70 miles of the San Diego’s coast.
“He was found responsible for a lack of training. No action was taken against him, and up until last week he was, in fact, the inspector general for the Marine Corps,” said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) during a hearing on the incident in May.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmilitarynews.com ...
The article only said he had been relieved of command.
Can he face criminal charges?
Our Military is suffering from people like this.
>>Can he face criminal charges?
Do you really want to go down the path of putting people in prison after every accident? Any accident it could be argued could have been avoided with more or better training - but that is not always the case.
If I kill someone in a car accident, should we lock up my driver’s ed instructor from 40 years ago?
I’ll admit, I don’t know the details of the particular (sad) case, but don’t want to start locking up folks for ‘accidents’; accidents will always happen, especially when training for war.
If I remember correctly, something like 15000 USAF young men were killed just in training during the WW2 buildup.
Our Pacific Fleet had a bunch of accidents recently.
Interesting, it was Mad Dog Mattis who nominated this guy for major general.
I doubt it. As a major general he wouldn’t be monitoring the day to day training of these soldiers. I imagine it’s more of a “the buck stops here” situation. As top dog it was his responsibility to insure competent trainers were in place to adequately train these soldiers and insure this was continuing to take place.
Deeper into the article is a detailed description of the accident.
Accident? You make it sound like it was a fender-bender.
9 Marines died; whether the general was personally responsible is debatable and whether he will have further punishment is yet to be determined.
One marine was missing after desert maneuvers in So Cal. 4 DAYS to discover he was awol. He died and they busted 2 sargents and a Lieutenant. They should of went higher.
There are a lot more to blame than the General, his firing just stops the bleeding.
There are a lot more to blame than the General, his firing just stops the bleeding.
This was a matter of a group of Marines remaining in an LVTP-7 for approximately thirty minutes while it slowly filled up with water.
The only lack of leadership was that an NCO on scene didn't tell them all to leave their gear and get out of a sinking craft.
Pre-WWII would have been USAAF not USAF (created in 1947), but, yeah:
Sobering Stats: 15,000 U.S. Airmen Killed in Training in WW II
What happens when they spend all their time in CRT and LGBTQ training. Need Curtis LeMay resurrected.
>>Accident? You make it sound like it was a fender-bender.
I didn’t make it sound like anything. It was an accident - by definition - unless you are suggesting this was done deliberately; otherwise it was an accident:
Accident: “an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance”
Was that an incident that happened ten or twelve years ago? I thought of that too, when I read this story.
The one I remember happened (I think) at 29 Palms. The Marine had been tasked to direct convoy traffic at a post in the middle of the desert. They forgot to go collect him when the maneuver was over. He stood his post until he passed out from dehydration, and died some time later. That story made quite an impression on me, that poor kid standing there waiting to be relieved, doing his duty.
I thought they kicked out a general over it though. I remember being impressed by how far up the chain they went.
It is possible. The article says the Commandant “took adverse administration action against him.” The could range from a letter of reprimand all the way to a general courts martial.
Most likely it was an Article 15 which is nonjudicial punishment. That can involve loss of rank and/or loss of pay.
No matter what, it IS a career ender.
I remember seeing a news story from the 1980s were a Marine DI on Paris Island marched his recruits into a swamp with full packs. Four or five drowned if I recall the story correctly.
Exactly right. The ranking marine on the track did not take the necessary action to save his men.
The gleeful tones of the two rat congresscritters commenting on this, says it all about how this cost the general his career.
Correct, why any NCO would not tell his men to get top side is beyond me. And why are they training 70 miles off the coast?
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