Posted on 04/16/2016 7:59:54 AM PDT by huldah1776
In a victory rare to U.S. military aviation, two widows of Marine Corps pilots have won a 16-year fight to lift blame from their husbands’ shoulders for a 2000 Osprey crash that killed 19 people, including 15 Marines from San Diego County.
Test pilots Lt. Col. John Brow and Maj. Brooks Gruber were at the controls of the MV-22 aircraft when it crashed in the Arizona desert during an exercise.
The revolutionary aircraft -- which travels like an airplane but lands vertically like a helicopter -- was still in the operational evaluation stage. The Marine Corps had a lot of money and time invested in the controversial airframe, which at one point had enemies as high as then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, who tried to kill the program in the early 1990s.
Marine officials viewed the Osprey, with its speed and maneuverability, as a game changer for the battlefield -- and eventually the aircraft did prove itself in Afghanistan by moving troops quickly in and out of harm’s way.
U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, the North Carolina congressman who doggedly championed the widows’ cause, said the Marine Corps pushed blame on the pilot and co-pilot back in 2000 because it needed the troubled program to continue and succeed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sandiegouniontribune.com ...
"They were Sgt. Jose Alvarez, 28; Pfc. Gabriel C. Clevenger, 21; Pfc. Alfred Corona, 23; Lance Cpl. Jason T. Duke, 28; Lance Cpl. Jesus Gonzalez Sanchez, 27; Lance Cpl. Seth G. Jones, 18; 2nd Lt. Clayton J. Kennedy, 24, platoon commander; Lance Cpl. Jorge A. Morin, 21; Cpl. Adam C. Neely, 22; Pfc. Kenneth O. Paddio, 23; Pfc. George P. Santos, 19; Pfc. Keoki P. Santos, 24; Cpl. Can Soler, 21; Pvt. Adam L. Tatro, 19; and Cpl. Eric J. Martinez, 21. The two remaining members of the Osprey crew were Cpl. Kelly S. Keith, 22, and Staff Sgt. William B. Nelson, 30."
No words spoken by me...
but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words Rom 8:26b
Semper Fidelis.
This is beyond sad. It is sick that those up in the higher echelon in the military are willing to pin the blame on the pilots who died flying this piece-of-crap aircraft so some military contract can be protected. Public be damned. Airmen be damned.
“The Osprey. Ten thousand loose parts rotating around an oil leak.”
Osprey was and is a death trap. The leadership of the Corps has been willing to sacrifice lives to keep it flying.
The political always blame others
True words. This tilt rotor debacle was a no go from the beginning
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