Inside a doomed military training flight
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The Big Story

MON. Dec 30, 2019

Faulty Equipment, Lapsed Training, Repeated Warnings: How a Preventable Disaster Killed Six Marines

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.

   

More From This Investigation

Adrift: How the Marine Corps Failed Squadron 242

Falling from 15,000 feet, two Marines hit the Pacific Ocean at 800 feet per minute. They were bruised and cold, their rescue equipment failed and help was hours away.

The Men Who Lost Their Lives When Their Tanker Went Down in a Doomed Military Training Flight

There were five Marines inside the KC-130J Hercules fuel tanker high above the Pacific when it went down. Here are brief profiles of the lost tanker crew.

The Navy Installed Touch-Screen Steering Systems to Save Money. 10 Sailors Paid With Their Lives.

When the USS John S. McCain crashed in the Pacific, the Navy blamed the destroyer’s crew for the loss of 10 sailors. The truth is the Navy’s flawed technology set the McCain up for disaster.

Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own

Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.

Iran Has Hundreds of Naval Mines. U.S. Navy Minesweepers Find Old Dishwashers and Car Parts.

As tensions heat up in the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s minesweeping fleet may once again be called into action, but its sailors say the ships are too old and broken to do the job. “We are essentially the ships that the Navy forgot.”

Sailors Report Enduring Concerns About Navy Readiness and Leadership

Sailors from every active fleet responded to a ProPublica callout, noting a continued lack of training, widespread exhaustion and an acute sense of vulnerability.

In Navy Disasters, Neglect, Mistakes, and 17 Lost Sailors

Snapshots of the sailors who perished in a pair of collisions in the Pacific in 2017.

How We Investigated the Navy’s Twin Disasters in the Pacific

 

Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster

How the Navy failed its sailors

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