Nine young men, aged 18 to 23, drowned in 300-foot water off Camp Pendleton, near San Diego on July 30, when their Marine landing craft sank. Two and a half months on, the investigation into these preventable deaths has still not signaled even a preliminary reason for their deaths.
I know all too well the terrible pain these families are going through. Those grieving families deserve an answer now, nearly three months after their loved ones perished.
A Marine general at Pendleton recently announced the firing of the lieutenant colonel who led the unit involved. But the Pendleton command did not indicate why he was fired. This is not good enough.
Today, more troops die, not in combat, but in noncombat operations through training accidents in aging war machines. These particular nine were killed after an amphibious assault vehicle sank, in seconds, to the bottom of the ocean after maneuvers on San Clemente Island.
Many of these heavy “vics” are very old. After almost 50 years since they were first delivered, these vehicles are vulnerable, less reliable, and more accident prone, despite refits. New amphibious assault vehicles are few and far between.
These types of vehicles are deeply uncomfortable to ride in, with up to 20 people crammed tightly together on narrow benches, shouldering heavy packs, wearing body armor, carrying weapons, and clad with flotation devices. These men and women only have a two-inch-by-three-inch window to observe the outside world. Inside, it is dark, and the air is laced with diesel fumes.
What caused these deaths? Perhaps a hatch leaked? Or an engine air grill? An amphibious assault vehicle’s escape hatches are often are hard to open. As it sinks, the sheer weight of seawater above makes it even harder to escape.
This is not an isolated training accident. There is a deep systemic problem across the Marine Corps and Army inventory of thousands of armored vehicles, both amphibious and land-based.
1st. Lt. Hugh Conor McDowell, 24, my son and only child, was a troop commander with the Marine 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion at Pendleton. Conor was killed instantly on May 9 last year when his light armored vehicle plunged into an uncharted, unidentified brush-and-grass-obscured crevasse at the vast base, rolling onto its top, crushing him.
He was to marry last September. I am proud to say he saved his gunner in the turret beside him, pushing him out of harm’s way. But it was too late to save his own life. “He saved our lives,” his young Marines touchingly told us in person and later in writing.
The “brass” argue, quite unconvincingly, that we are comparing apples and oranges, that an amphibious assault vehicle is quite different than a light armored vehicle, although the latter can also ford water. But all tactical vehicles are top-heavy, prone to roll over if not carefully driven, and can kill or very seriously injure. Many of these deaths are preventable. Two U.S. Airmen died in rollovers at a Kuwait air base just last month. Each month, more young people die in rollovers in training.
Of the more than 20 young people killed in military training in the past year or so, many have been killed in “vics” worn out in Iraq and Afghanistan, which regularly break down and too often are rushed by higher officers through maintenance inspections which they should fail. To keep these vehicles going, the military is often forced to cannibalize others for replacement parts. There are precious few new vehicles.
Astonishingly, most of our tactical vehicles don’t even have anti-lock brakes or electronic stability controls, which stop the heavy machines more quickly and at shorter distances. Yet these features have been standard on civilian cars for decades.
The Pentagon spends billions of our tax dollars on planes, ships, missiles, and other high-priced items, but the overlooked infantry often have to make do with second-rate and third-rate vehicles, which are killing far too many of our young people, many of them dying in their teens.
My family, and others, asked Congress in summer 2019 to demand the military bring in major safety improvements. Since then, Rep. John Garamendi (a Democrat from California), a key subcommittee chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, along with other representatives and senators, convinced the independent Government Accountability Office to begin a comprehensive inquiry into all rollover deaths, going back nine years and suggesting interim remedies. The GAO will report in the spring, and congressional hearings will likely follow and further serious media coverage.
But the public should demand safety reforms right now. More young men and women will die in preventable accidents in the months ahead. It is a disgrace.
For the present, let us never forget the names of those who died for our country on July 30: Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra, 19, of Corona, California; Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21, of Montebello, California; Pfc. Evan A. Bath, 19, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin; U.S. Navy Hospitalman Christopher Gnem, 22, of Stockton, California; Pfc. Jack Ryan Ostrovsky, 21, of Bend, Oregon; Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd, 23, of Harris, Texas; Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood, 19, of Portland, Oregon; Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21, of Riverside, California.
Rest in peace, young warriors. It is time your families had answers from the Marine Corps and the Department of Defense.
Michael H.C. McDowell is the father of 1st Lt. H. Conor McDowell.
