Posted on 03/27/2021 10:25:15 AM PDT by Retain Mike
The deadly events of July 30, 2020, marked the end of a “chain of failure” that began seven months before, when an AAV platoon belonging to 3rd Amphibian Assault Battalion at Camp Pendleton, Calif., received inoperable amphibious vehicles just a few months before they’d join the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit to train for an overseas deployment, according to the senior investigator.
The battalion “did not properly train or equip this AAV Platoon for a very difficult MEU training cycle and deployment,” the investigator wrote. “They formed the platoon late, the platoon was not properly trained and evaluated to join the 15th MEU, and they were assigned AAVs in horrible condition.”
The mishap was the culmination of a “combination of maintenance failures, due to disregard of maintenance procedures, AAV crewmen not evacuating personnel when the situation clearly demanded they be evacuated, and improper training of embarked personnel on AAV safety procedures,” the investigator wrote.
Additionally, the training off San Clemente Island didn’t have the proper safety procedures in place that could have helped evacuate the crew from the floundering amtrac, according to the investigation
(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...
Wait until pregnant Marines are included in these dangerous exercises.
Officer and military logistics more interested in being woke then doing a good job.
At some point the military has to be about the job its meant to be good at, rather than being good at jobs career-oriented politicians whose interest lies in politics want.
These things will opine to happen as long as 1st level supervisors report to 2nd level ones. Those on the bottom don’t get paid to know what’s going on.
Chain-of-command failure = Many ended careers....
...as it should. These were negligent homicides, IMO.
I’ve had two bad AMTRAC experiences myself. Even when things go perfectly, it’s not a terrific way to travel. Better than swimming and walking I guess...sometimes.
Reminds me of my time during jimmy carter leadership. We were told to do more, better with less. Pretty soon we were doing everything with nothing.
Reminds me of the USS Pueblo capture. Where was the backup? Pearl Harbor anyone?
The aav sinking in 345 feet of water, it makes no sense to me that the support vessel was three miles out.
If any of them had complained...well, it probably would’ve been reflected in their jacket.
Prayers for them...what a loss.
There was no excuse for this.
They didn’t have to launch that messed up AAV; it wasn’t a combat situation.
Some of these officers should be put up against a wall and shot.
The commanding general apparently has no combat experience. How does that happen?
One of the most comical and ghastly sights was a bunch of Pentagon brass talking about lack of readiness to Congress after Trump was inaugurated when they had all been in front of Congress a few months before blowing smoke up their butts about how all forces were 100% ready.
This problem goes all the way back to the big draw down under Clinton, when honest readiness reports after the big budget cuts were almost guaranteed to produce a separation of the officer from the armed forces.
Honest question here. Do so-called TransMen (folks that think they are guys, but have female plumbing) have to meet the male PT standards, or the female? Because I'd think a lot of guys would want to start identifying as female if it could get them an easier pass on the PT test/lower pack weights, etc.
at least they’ll have uniforms that fit.
These things happen wherever there is bureaucracy. I’m currently coping with a mess over code violations that were sprung on me when a neighboring contractor clogged my rental property drain resulting in basement flooding in rental apartment, call by them to authorities and $6,000 in fines when they discovered safety violations caused by change in law a few years ago. So I filed photos showing correction of violations with law department. Finally, after 6 months they sent very bad black copies of my color copies to the regulatory department to ask if I had corrected violations. Regulatory dept. had made one efforts to get reinspection and one effort over a month later to talk with me, but I did not see either email in the vast clutter of emails I get regularly. So regulatory told law I failed.
Meanwhile, a week before Christmas I received an official letter that because of Covid distress, city would forgive fines if all violations had been shown corrected a few days after X-mas, to which I responded promptly with the same completely reconfigured email photos (10 hours stressful labor with me the IT nerd, and friend the IT expert and we got it in on Christmas Day. Unfortunately regulatory combined my personal address numbers with the subject property’s street name, so if the sent someone to inspect they went to the wrong place.
So now my case is back with law, but a very nice “help” person checked and found my original submission 6 months ago which contained clear color photos. They alerted the primary law office about the situation and existence of the clear photos, so I hope law decides to clear me and NOT send back to regulatory. Apparently, working from home, people are using their black and white computers to send photos rather than the color copy equipment at headquarters. I am very frustrated and worried because a similar thing happened to me 10 years ago.
I was putting a porch on the front of a building. I had put the permit in the basement window while planning and purchasing. Then I built the floor of the porch, but forgot to move the permit to the first floor window. Next, a $2,000 stop-work-order just before Christmas. I called inspector, sent him a copy of my permit and he said he would take care of it. He did not, resulting in about 10 hours of discussions with various offices in law as they tried to collect the fine. Finally in June I was heard by and Administrative Law Judge who dismissed my case “with prejudice” when meant they could not do anything to me. That fall I went to regulatory to get a different permit and was told I still had a stop-work-order and could not get the permit. I got carefully angry and in 1/2 hour the failure to notify the legal decision had been rectified and I finished getting the permit.
Lessons learned. Expect bureaucracies to fail. Document everything, forever. When going to a problem meeting bring everything. Never give up. I have only had one problem I actually needed a lawyer for. That was when I was being politically active against an issue favored by officials. My pro bono lawyer and I pursuaded the 3 person Hearing panel to throw out the city’s contention that I owed thousands of tax dollars, because I had ample documentation I had followed the law.
As of now:! I mean pregnant female Marines.
After reading about the deadly Fitzgerald and John S McCain collisions, and this mess, I think the Navy has a bunch of bad equipment and improperly trained leadership.
I wonder if anyone looks for a role that possible distractions created by human resource etc. remedial program (race, sex etc.) requirements play in diverting seniors' attention from operational matters.
Back in 74-77 when a battalion assumed Division Ready Force 1... we would go to the bridge motor pool and requisition Zhe parts for jeeps, mules, and gammagoats from our sister battalions. Losing units would notify the warrant officer of missing parts and they were placed on back order. Heavy machine guns, PRC77 radios, and other equipment was transferred using the Temp Loan by the Division G4.
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