Two USMC down in Japan

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker
I never really thought about it. When we would do night jumps into the river for training, I was worried about alligators and mud bars.

I did a night jump and landed in a mud bar. I was stuck in the mud about five feet from the surface. We had just been issued a HEEDs (Helicopter Emergency Escape Device) bottle. It gave you about five minutes of oxygen. I needed all of it. I had just surfaced when the emergency boat got there.

God bless these brave souls.

For those that can stomach reading this.

Surprise. Yet another whitewash of a series of absolute and complete screw ups by higher authority. Meanwhile the people that got screwed got screwed harder and the people that did the screwing got promoted.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I read it and got totally pissed off. The more things change the more they remain the same.

It's called a "Command Challenge". The Navy and the Marines have the same mentality. "Not enough resources to complete the mission, come on it's a Command Challenge. You should be able to think of something, or do we have the wrong man in command?"

I saw this happen in the early 80's. I'm not surprised that it's still happening. Hell it happened at Pearl Harbor in Dec. 41.

The cover the Brass's ass. No surprise there. Just look at the turret explosion on the USS Iowa. We lost a helo and a good friend of mine. The cause of the crash was pilot error, but because the pilot belonged to an "important" family, it was written off as "mechanical failure". The co-pilot who was not at fault, pretty much gave up flying. He was a good guy and a good friend.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
For those that can stomach reading this.

Surprise. Yet another whitewash of a series of absolute and complete screw ups by higher authority. Meanwhile the people that got screwed got screwed harder and the people that did the screwing got promoted.

Thanks for the warning but I read it anyway and cannot express how disgusted I am

a reply to: FredT

I wish to hell I could say it surprised me. Pissed me off to the point I'm glad I didn't have anything to throw handy, but didn't surprise me much.

To date, no one above Compton has been disciplined.

Whoa, didn't see THAT coming.

Maybe if nothing changes, things will be different next time.

The Marines have formally reprimanded several personnel involved in the investigation and issued a new report that's completely different than the first. According to sources, the first report was not impartial in its focus, thorough in its scope or accurate in its finding.

According to the new report, Ambien was not a factor, Capt Resilard WAS qualified to fly the mission, and a very important detail was added to the accident sequence. According to the new report, the initial refueling was performed lights out, but after completing refueling Profane 11 turned his lights to the bright overt setting. This caused Capt Resilard to focus on them, instead of the KC-130, which was still dark, and washed his NVGs out.

www.military.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

"Sleep deprivation" After all of these years they are finally worried about that.

On ship it wasn't unusual to work a 12 hour shift, stand a 12 hour watch, have a two hour briefing for a four hour flight, have a two hour de-briefing, have four hours off before another 12 hour shift. Many times during that four hours off, the ship had a drill that you had to participate in. THAT WAS NORMAL in peacetime.

I'm pretty sure that you can relate to it Zap.

a reply to: JIMC5499

If the flightline isn't on 12s, all their aircraft are deployed.

Geez if a semi trailer driver here is caught driving for longer than two hours before a break hes pretty much screwed..Pushing pilots to breaking point is criminal.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks for the update, Zaph.

Cheers

a reply to: Zaphod58

We were 12 on 12 off on ship, but that didn't count watches or flying. I was one of two people from maintenance that also flew. This also meant that I stood Ready Room watch. Sometimes things just lined up.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Check your messages btw.

Surprisingly Some of the best sleep I’ve ever had was on the boat.

a reply to: 38181

On the Indy my rack was under the three wire. On Forrestal it was beside Cat 2. I worked night check. I can sleep through anything.

a reply to: Blackfinger
And isn't it amazing that we do that to Navy crews as well as Doctors working in emergency wards as interns? I mean who knew that pushing someone to fatigue breaking point would cause deadly mistakes and accidents that were both completely preventable as well as unacceptable in the rest of society with good reason? And all because the guys who went before them are essentially engaged in a worthless p**sing contest to see who is the biggest man in the fatigue stakes.

There has been extensive studies done on fatigue and what it does to the human mind and body.They may as well been on drugs or alcohol.Instead of having a person working at 100% mental capacity fatigue rapidly diminishes it to the point where the human mind starts to unwind.