Original subtitles

Bennington, approach.

Firefighter, 214.

According to the terms, you've got to clean up.

Roger, 214. You're in the box.

No threat approach.

My policy's paid up.

214, you're at a mile and three quarters. Report paddles. Roger. This is

Hornet. Three quarters of a mile ball.

214, this is paddles. Roger, off.

The deck is coming up.

214, roger.

You're below the glide slope, 214. Go manual.

Already done.

Bring it up. You're too low.

Add power.

Bring her up.

Three nights ago, Lieutenant James Ross crashed his F -18 Hornet into the ramp

of the USS Bennington. He was killed instantly.

Airline Jags are overextended, so you two are heading out there to investigate

this afternoon.

Sir,

could this not wait until tomorrow?

Well, you're the one that's always begging you to go to sea.

Yeah, um... Well, I'm sure it'll be

fine, sir.

What were the preliminary findings, sir?

I know.

Petty Officer Coates has your orders dismissed.

Ma 'am, sir, you'll be leaving at 1600 from Andrews, then you pick up a cod and

leave. Guess I'd better call Webb and tell him dinner's off.

It's kind of nice to be the one canceling for a change.

Jennifer, would you? It's about Maddie, right?

It always is when you call me Jennifer.

Could you... I'd be glad to look after her, sir, as long as you leave me your

credit card.

There is one other thing, though. I'm supposed to meet with Maddie's English

teacher tomorrow morning. Dragon lady?

Yeah, she threatened to flunk Maddie if she doesn't finish all the assignments

for the first semester.

But she wasn't even here first semester.

We need to drill that into her head.

By we, do you mean me, sir?

Thank you.

sick about not being able to be there it's under control sir don't worry about

thing

Well, why would the pilot switch the manual if the plane was handling well on

automatic?

Well, some of the pilots get a little squirrely just sitting on their hands. I

never liked flying automatic in a 14.

Does the F -18 have a black box?

No, but it does have maintenance tape, which should tell us everything that

happened on the flight.

That was a hell of a blast, sir.

I'm afraid the maintenance tape burned up. You're kidding.

But we did recover the front part of the plane, more or less.

Half the upper nose just sheared open into the sea.

Well, what are the pieces telling you, Senior Chief?

Those stabilization and flight control systems look good, ma 'am.

Nothing's really jumping out at us. Keep us updated, huh?

Of course, sir. Can you tell us about Lieutenant Ross?

Well, he never really gave us a hard time, but I really didn't know him that

well, ma 'am.

You might want to talk to his squadron commander.

Why don't I do that, and you can interview the Air Department personnel.

Sure, you talk to the brass while I talk to the guys who do the real work. Thank

you, Chief.

I'll show you the way, ma 'am.

Nice to meet you, ma 'am. And you are? Jennifer Coates. I'm Maddie's

No, she just lives with me.

And your stepfather?

Actually, he's not her stepfather. He's her guardian. But no, we're not a

couple. But the three of you do live together.

We live down the hall from Harm.

From Harm? Yeah, that's his name, my guardian.

This is all rather confusing.

Point is, ma 'am, Harm, her guardian, asked that I stand in for him today.

Oh. Well, I'm disappointed that he couldn't be here. He got called away

suddenly.

How long have you been in his care?

Four weeks.

Well, I hope this doesn't become a pattern.

I've found that when parents don't take an interest in their child's

education... He is very interested, ma 'am, which is why he sent me.

Well, most of the problems I run into are directly related to lack of parental

supervision. Ms. Dabrowski, can we get back to the subject here?

What do I need to do to pass your course?

Your guardian needs to understand how important it is that he be truly

He's doing the best he can.

Well, he needs to be more responsible.

Would you stop insulting him, for God's sake? He's a good father.

Young lady, you need to calm down. Like hell I do.

No, I'm not just going to stand there and listen to her trash talk harm.

Lieutenant Ross's death is a terrible loss.

He was married with a little boy.

How long was he with the squadron?

Nine months.

He was scheduled for six, then extended indefinitely.

It's a tough break, Commander.

We had a period of minimal flight ops, so I gave him and some of the other

pilots two weeks' leave to go back home.

When was that?

They came back on board last week.

What kind of a pilot was he? Was he good?

He won the Golden Tail hook twice.

Did he give you trouble of any kind?

Commander, whatever happened with that plane, I sincerely doubt it was

Lieutenant Ross' fault.

But you know how that goes.

You crashed a few yourself.

Well, sometimes it's nobody's fault.

But that doesn't keep us from looking, does it?

It seemed like a routine flight, ma 'am. Lieutenant Ross coupled up to the ACLS.

Everything looked good for a hands -off landing. And nothing on the scope

indicated the A -team was coming along?

Not till the very end, ma 'am. As far as I could tell, the plane was following

the precise approach path programmed into the computer.

Well, we'll want to examine that programming data.

Ma 'am, the explosion knocked the computers offline.

Data was lost.

Who does the programming?

First class Dakey.

This is Colonel McKenzie from JAG. Ma 'am. Eddie.

Thank you.

Ma 'am.

Aren't you kind of young to be a petty officer, first class?

Ma 'am, when the Navy finds out you enjoy spending 15 hours a day fiddling

computers, they tend to promote you pretty fast.

Yeah, I didn't realize that carrier landings had become so computerized.

Oh, it's incredible, ma 'am.

Three years ago, it was the first time an F -18 did a fully automated GPS

landing at sea.

Now a lot of CAGs prefer automatic landings. Why's that?

Less pilot error, ma 'am. And what about computer error?

Ma 'am, with all the innovations in the flight management system, computer error

is negligible.

Soon we'll see unmanned planes landing on carriers.

The pilots will love that.

They will, ma 'am.

So four nights ago, was there any computer error?

I saw no indications of it, ma 'am. I was sitting here at my screen when it

happened. You have no thoughts on what caused the crash?

Maybe the pilot caused problems when he switched to manual.

Well, we haven't found reason to suspect that.

Petty officer, if you have...

nagging concerns about anything.

Ma 'am, you have to understand, a computer system's only as good as the

that's put into it. Meaning?

Nine times out of ten, when we've had minor problems, it's because of the

of attack vein.

The what?

The angle of attack vein. It's a $30 piece of equipment on the fuselage.

If it's miscalibrated, it sends false information to the computer, which can

cause the plane to approach at an incorrect angle.

Well, how does it get miscalibrated?

Sometimes when it's windy, the vane knocks around and bangs against the

It was real windy the night of the crash, ma 'am.

Ma 'am, there was nothing wrong with the angle of the tag vane.

Chief, a miscalibrated vane would explain what happened that night.

Because it was windy, I told the plane captain to be sure the vane was secure

before the A -team took off.

I saw the math, Commander.

The CDI signed off on it. We'll check with them.

Sir, there's no way that my maintenance department should have to take the rap

for this. Unless they screwed up. Which they didn't. I'm sure of it.

You're awfully defensive, Senior Chief.

What is it you're not telling us?

I didn't want to speak ill of the dead, sir.

What is it, Senior Chief?

When Lieutenant Ross returned from leave, he was acting kind of off

Depressed. Said his wife was having an affair, and he didn't care what happened

to him.

Sir, ma 'am, I don't believe that crash was an accident.

He's connecting the autopilot with the ship's automatic landing system.

Roger, 214, you're in the box.

No sweat approach.

My policy's paid up.

He made this life insurance policy.

He's making a joke about being killed.

A joke or a prediction?

No sweat approach.

My policy's paid up.

214, you're at three quarters of an hour. I can't tell if that's suicidal or

not. It sounds cocky. It could be the adrenaline talking.

Why wouldn't he just crash into the ocean so as not to endanger the crew?

Probably more of the top thing on his mind.

If it was suicide, maybe he'd have to know.

He was studying Spanish.

Among other things.

That's nice.

Where would you hide a suicide note if you were on a carrier?

You hide it somewhere where your rack mates wouldn't find it until later.

Under a mattress?

Oh, my God.

What? Well, how does someone with a little baby kill themselves?

I don't care if his wife was having an affair.

I wonder if he wrote her a letter.

Or an email.

A lot of pilots take out extra insurance on top of the CGLI. How much insurance

do you have? I'm going to have to take out a little more now that I got Maddie.

Speak of the devil. Go ahead, I'll get started.

All right.

Hey, Maddie.

Now it's Jennifer, or Petty Officer Coates, whoever I am.

Oh, hey, Jennifer.

We had our meeting with the dragon lady today.

Maddie got mad and stormed off.

You're kidding.

I think she could use some parental guidance.

Put her on, would you?

Maddie, want to talk to Harm?

You didn't tell him what happened, did you?

You can't be hiding stuff from him, Maddie.

Gee, what a great big sister you are.

Hey, Harm.

Hey, yourself.

What's this I hear about you walking out on Mr. Drabowski?

She was acting like such a witch.

I don't care, Maddie. She's still your teacher.

You kept talking all this garbage, Harm.

She was saying that you're an irresponsible father who didn't care

education.

So you were standing up for me.

Somebody had to.

Look, I can stand up for myself, Maddie. Well, you can do that a week from

Friday. Jennifer talked her into rescheduling.

Good. Are you going to be there?

Of course I'm going to be there. Nothing would keep me away from that.

Ma 'am, you can click this icon right here to access the satellite.

Thanks for walking me through this, Petty Officer.

You ever have trouble with viruses?

I built a pretty tight firewall, ma 'am.

Don't want any terrorists implanting false navigation data.

Lieutenant Ross didn't send his wife any emails after he came back on board.

That's strange.

Most guys email their wives once or twice a day.

Well, here's one he wrote her, but he never sent.

Anything interesting, ma 'am?

Arlene, how could you do this to me? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't

just fly into the back of the ship some night.

Told Stannis I don't give a damn if I live or die.

He said he didn't give a damn either and I should just suck it up and keep

flying. I didn't take his comments seriously, Colonel.

You didn't take a suicide threat seriously?

Carrier pilots and sailors have mood swings all the time.

Especially now with longer deployments.

I worried about every single questionable remark or joke.

None of my planes would ever get off the deck.

But Lieutenant Ross did make the statement.

Commander, you know how it is on a carrier.

Yeah, well, we're trying to find out how it is on this carrier.

When you were flying, would you have wanted your squadron commander to ground

you every time you were feeling a little down?

Lieutenant Ross wasn't feeling a little down.

I know he was having a tough time.

But as a carrier pilot, you have to learn to fight through that.

Your life depends on your ability to forget everything else and focus on that

heaving little speck of steel deck you have to land on. Otherwise, you'd die.

Why didn't you tell us Lieutenant Ross was having problems?

Because Ross was a good man.

And I don't have any evidence that his problems had anything to do with that

crash. Or were you maybe covering up your own role in that crash?

I didn't have any role, Colonel.

I was training Lieutenant Ross like I do all my pilots.

Now that's what I'm concerned about, Commander.

Colonel, I was selected to command this squadron to go out and fight wars.

I don't expect to spend my time on sorority house foolishness.

That's what chaplains and flight surgeons are for.

Lieutenant Ross didn't go to them, Commander.

He came to you.

Tech Rep agrees with Senior Chief.

Records analysis shows no evidence of mechanical problems.

Or computer problems.

Given Ross's email, his statements to Sanders, his own words on the radio.

And the aircraft's attitude during approach.

Sure as hell looks like suicide.

It would definitely appear that way.

And squadron commander error. We have to deal with that harm.

Mac, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking.

Amanda Sanders never should have sent Ross in that plane, given that he was

obviously suicidal.

I recommend that Commander Stanis be charged with dereliction of duty under

Article 92 of the UCMJ.

And an unwarranted one, sir. Commander Stanis could have shown better judgment,

but his actions certainly don't merit criminal proceedings.

Lieutenant Ross was severely emotionally disturbed. He had no business flying in

that plane. He took his own life, Mac. Shifting plane would be a travesty. Come

on, Harvey. Express clear suicidal intent.

Guys say all kinds of things when they've been at sea for months.

With all due respect to the colonel, sir, she doesn't quite grasp that.

Commander Stannis subscribed to an outdated macho code that has no place in

today's military.

He refused to save a man who was begging for help. He was trying to turn that

man into a fighter pilot who could fly safely in crisis situations.

You can't start court -martialing officers for trying to do their job.

Well, if he'd done his job properly, Ross would still be alive.

And you two work together?

Must be a real picnic.

Does Commander Stanage acknowledge having this discussion with Lieutenant

He does, sir. However... Commander, I've always trusted Stanage's judgment.

But his primary responsibility is to take care of his people.

And it sounds as though he's failed to do that.

Captain, we're holding Commander Stanage to an impossible standard.

A man's life was lost.

Thousands of lives were endangered.

A $40 million aircraft was destroyed.

No, I agree with the Colonel.

The Stanage's actions, or inactions, merit an Article 32 investigation.

At the very least.

Bring me the flight schedule as soon as it's ready.

Roger that, sir. Commander Stennis?

Sir?

Colonel? Could you join us in my stateroom? We need to talk.

Sir, can I just take a couple of minutes to change into my flight gear? We

should do it now, Commander.

What is it, sir?

Commander, I've ordered an article 32 on your performance as Lieutenant Ross's

commanding officer.

Now, pending the outcome of this investigation,

you are relieved of your command.

Effective immediately.

Howdy, Strange.

Howdy.

I thought you were still off at sea.

Yeah, well, I thought you'd be at volleyball practice. I went to the

looking for you.

I'm a little sick.

Oh, yeah?

How was practice on Tuesday?

It was okay, I guess.

No one ever sets me to spike the ball.

Well, they will when they find out how awesome you are.

Yeah, there's all these stupid cliques.

I don't even care.

Is that why you didn't go tonight? Manny, you know, when things don't go

way, you can't just give up.

I said I'm sick, okay? I didn't want to puke all over the court.

Hey.

Manny.

You've been through hell these last couple of months.

I want you to promise me something.

If you're ever feeling overwhelmed, you'll come to me. I'll definitely do

if you're around.

I'm just trying to figure out who my guardian is, you or Jennifer.

I am.

I don't like being a teenager and going to school.

I like running my own business and being in charge.

You know, Maddie, I never felt like I got to be a teenager.

And I've always regretted it.

You have plenty of time to grow up.

Enjoy the freedom.

Before I met you, I could pretty much do what I wanted.

Well, so could I before I met you.

I don't care what my husband wrote in my email.

He did not kill himself.

Mrs. Ross, a lot of Navy families have problems when the guy comes home. We

no different.

Well, apparently your husband was disturbed by your affair.

I wasn't having an affair.

But your husband thought you were.

Why are you doing this to me? Mrs. Roth, I want justice for him. That's it.

Commander Stanage had a duty to refer anyone exhibiting the warning signs of

suicide to a chaplain or physician.

He never should have ordered your husband to fly. I believe he was guilty

negligent dereliction. I need you to testify against him.

And say what?

Well, talk about your husband's mood when he was with you on leave.

I know this is a hard thing that I'm asking you to do. You have no idea.

I am a single mom with half a college degree and no job.

If Jim Seth is called to suicide, me and my baby are out $500 ,000 in insurance

money. I want to get to the bottom of what happened to your husband.

All I care about is taking care of this little boy.

I understand your feelings, Mrs. Ross.

Unfortunately, I may have to subpoena you.

The colonel's case pretty much boils down to person A kills himself, and we

charge person B for not stopping him. Sir, B was A's commanding officer.

So, God forbid something happens to you, I would be held responsible?

Admiral, if I tell you I'm feeling self -destructive and you order me to suck it

up and climb to the top of a tall building with no railing and look down,

yes, you would be partially responsible.

Commander Stanage simply ordered Lieutenant Ross to do his job.

Sir, we have to face up to the fact that military men can commit suicide, too.

Prosecuting Commander Stanage is a roundabout way of having anyone face up

anything. I agree, Commander.

Stanich, the commanding officer, disagrees, sir. Which brings us to the

32. I've already assigned Lieutenant Roberts to second chair the defense.

Colonel, you will defend Commander Stanich. Commander, you'll prosecute.

Sir. Just kidding.

Dismissed.

Aye, sir.

Max, discovery package.

We need to start shooting holes in it.

Already begun my research, sir.

Research on what?

Well, in a general sense, this is the suicide prevention software used by the

Army.

Helps to teach you how to deal with people who may be suicidal.

Like this guy here. He's a virtual soldier from Kentucky by the name of

Parker.

Billy, you can't do this to yourself.

I just want all this to end.

I hate to be selfish, but I feel like I can't go on. I hate to think about

hurting my family.

Okay, so if a soldier told you that, sir, what would be your response?

Don't be a fool.

Sorry, sir, the program scores you zero for that response.

The program says that you should establish trust and suspend moral

can't believe we're wasting money on this kind of nonsense.

Well, sir, if it saves just one life, it's worth it.

Did you know that one of the leading causes of death in the military is

People are mixed up everywhere, bud.

It's not just mixed up people, sir.

You know, when I lost my leg, there was a really rough stretch.

I felt like my life was over.

I just thank God that I didn't have a gun nearby because...

Now, I'm the happiest that I've ever been.

Not that nobody knew.

Except for Harriet.

Oh, another great feature, sir, is that it helps to identify people that are at

high risk for suicide.

So what would...

What would you tell Soldier Billy?

I'd give you a couple of good options.

One of them is to express your concern or to offer help.

I could mention to him how it might affect his family.

Maybe I'm going to suggest to him that he has a hot fudge Sunday.

Always cheers me up.

My husband was a loyal and caring person.

How did he act when he came home on leave?

Why should I have to answer that?

Mrs. Ross, you are required to respond to trial counsel's questions.

When Jim came home, we had a hard time.

In what way?

He wasn't himself.

He got used to being this cocky carrier pilot.

He ordered me and the baby around like we were enlisted personnel.

How did that make you feel?

How would you feel?

The baby would cry, I'd yell at Jim, and then he'd yell back, and...

And... And then what, Mrs. Russell?

He got this crazy idea that I must be going out with someone else.

An old boyfriend of mine, which is nuts, because I didn't even like him anymore.

I still loved my husband.

It must have been extremely difficult for your husband.

Did he ever talk about hurting himself?

Objection. Spousal privilege.

Given our need for the evidence and the fact that the spouse is deceased, I will

overrule. You must answer, Mrs. Ross. Your Honor, this is too personal.

Arlene, with your help, we can get the Navy to take action. So what happened to

your family doesn't happen to any other family.

Objection. Jim's death doesn't have to be in vain.

Your Honor, this is a criminal proceeding, not a crusade.

Colonel, stop editorializing. Mrs. Ross, please answer the question.

Did your husband talk about hurting himself?

Jim called from Naples right before you went back aboard.

He was talking crazy about how we were going to get divorced and he was never

going to see us then again.

He said he didn't know if life was still worth living.

What did you tell him?

I begged him to be a chaplain or somebody.

So Jim promised me that if he really felt bad and needed help, he would tell

CO.

And that's exactly what he did.

He told Stannis and the bastards sent him up in that plane to die.

Objection. Sustained.

That'll be all, Your Honor.

Thank you for your courage, Mrs. Ross.

Mrs. Ross, you didn't know that your husband was going to kill himself, did

No. And you were certainly more intimate with him than Commander Stanage was,

though.

How could he have known if you didn't? He should have known enough not to send

him up in that plane to die.

And you can object all you want. It's the truth.

In retrospect, I wish I hadn't given my men two weeks' leave.

Why is that, Commander?

When they came back on board, they had a hard time readjusting to carrier

operations. Well, how did these difficulties manifest themselves?

Morale problems, bickering, lack of focus.

So Lieutenant Ross was not the only pilot affected.

That's correct, Commander.

And a lot of the guys would let off steam by saying things that were a

off the wall.

What kind of things?

One of my men joked about slugging the captain so he could get off the ship.

Another pilot made remarks about... Jumping in the ocean and swimming back

Naples. You have to understand, carrier pilots risk their lives daily.

A little gallows humor keeps us sane.

And that's how you understood Lieutenant Ross's remarks?

I looked right in his eyes.

I thought he was fooling around like the rest of us.

Commander, if I had any idea Jim Ross was going to fly that plane into the

ramp... I would have grounded him in a heartbeat.

Thank you, Commander.

Your witness.

Commander Stanich, what exactly did Lieutenant Ross say to you when you

right in his eyes?

Ma 'am, I don't recall his precise words.

Government Exhibit 3. Lieutenant Ross was unsent email.

Would you please read the first highlighted sentence?

I told Stanich I don't give a damn if I live or die.

Is that an accurate rendering of what the lieutenant said to you?

I thought he was blustering, Colonel.

It's a little hard to explain out of context.

It's hard to explain in any context.

Objection. Badgering the witness.

Sustained. Read the next sentence, please.

He said he didn't give a damn either, and I should just suck it up and keep

flying. Is that what you told him?

Colonel, carrier pilots need to be mentally tough.

I train my men to ignore distractions so they can complete their missions.

He said he didn't give a damn and I should just suck it up.

I didn't tell him to crash into the ship.

But it is ultimately your responsibility to make sure your pilots are ready to

fly. Isn't that so, Commander?

My squadron's performance during Operation Iraqi Freedom was outstanding,

Colonel. But you failed this time, didn't you, Commander?

Mike, I know you're there. Pick up.

For God's sakes, how long is this act going to go on, Mikey?

Uh, no, I'll, uh, I'll talk to you later. Bye -bye.

What is your opinion of Commander Stanage?

He's a good man, a little old school.

He didn't get where he is by being negligent or by being a bad judge of

character, did he?

What are you getting at, sir?

What if he was right about Ross?

What do you mean?

Let's get moving, bud.

Nice of you to make it. Sorry we're late, Your Honor. I was conducting a

-minute review of evidence.

May we approach the bench, sir? Granted.

Colonel?

Sir, I would like to request a continuance at this time to reopen the

investigation into the crash.

A little late for that, Counselor. I am now completely convinced it was suicide,

Your Honor. Is there new evidence the trial counsel was not aware of? Some

some old. I believe we may have been a little hasty in our assumption.

If there is additional evidence, I... I just received it. I have subpoenaed

Lieutenant Ross's financial records.

Two days before his death, he ordered a brand new motorcycle on the internet.

Certainly not the kind of behavior you would expect from someone about to take

their life.

Your Honor, I'm sure Lieutenant Ross had mood swings.

Your Honor, if Ross committed suicide out of anger toward his wife, why

he leave a note?

Or forward the email blaming his wife?

causing her even more guilt.

Maybe Ross didn't leave a note because he wanted his son to get insurance

There's another problem, sir. Why did he crash into the ramp, endangering the

crew? He had no beef against them. Why wouldn't he just fly directly into the

ocean? Commander, we've already discussed this. You can't expect suicide

rational. Are you totally positive it was suicide, Colonel?

You do raise some interesting questions, Counselor, however belatedly.

Your Honor, I think we owe it to Commander Stanish to answer this

we certainly owe it to Arlene Ross.

How much time do you need?

A week. I'll give you two days. Sir, it'll take two days just to get out and

carry him back.

Make it four.

This hearing is in recess until my call.

You're leaving again?

Sorry, Maddie. I didn't have time to come home to tell you. Where are you

this time?

I'm going back to the Mediterranean, but only for four days.

Will you be back on Friday by four o 'clock?

Why? I told you that's when you have the meeting with the Dragon Lady.

I'm going to try to make it.

That means no.

Maddie, I'm sorry. I have to do this. A man's life is at stake. He's looking at

prison time.

Yeah, go ahead. Knock yourself out.

Sir, Lieutenant Roberts and I were hoping to recreate the circumstances

surrounding the incident.

So I'm requesting permission to do an automatic landing in an F -18.

Aren't you a 14 driver?

I'm qualified for 18s when I was with another agency in the government.

Another agency?

I can get you official, unofficial confirmations.

Well,

in that case, I think we can schedule you. Thank you, Cag.

Sir, here's the...

Tech rep submitted his final report.

Yeah, still no evidence of any mechanical problems.

What about the computer system, sir? Our computer tech evaluated the entire J

-PAL system.

No bugs, no glitches.

But with the aircraft maintenance tape burned up, we have no way to know

how that system was programmed for that flight.

We'll need to talk to your computer tech, too, sir. We ran exhaustive tests

every element of the shipboard system.

We also recovered key components of the 18's flight management system.

Everything checked out perfectly, sir. If there was a programming glitch, would

these radar scopes have indicated that?

Yes, sir.

You sure?

I examined everything, sir.

So did the other two petty officers who assisted me.

Does your system record any alterations in programming?

We're still working on that feature, sir.

Well, fortunately, we can confirm all that because we were able to recover the

data from the aircraft's maintenance table.

I thought it burned, sir.

Only... Partially.

We took it to the Naval Research Lab and they were able to reconstitute the

fragments of the tape of the final 84 seconds of the flight.

Well, that's great news, sir.

Yeah, because I'll be flying an F -18 tonight at the exact automatic settings

you programmed for Lieutenant Ross.

So that will prove that your settings are accurate, correct?

Yes, sir.

And they had better be accurate or I'm a dead man.

Sir.

You give me the data, I'll take care of programming the system myself.

Well, that wouldn't be proper investigative protocol.

You could hang around and watch me trap, though, if you'd like.

Thank you, sir.

Is there anything else, sir? No, that'll be all.

84 seconds.

Just trying to back you up, sir. You playing a hunch?

Yeah, we had better let the ATC and the CAG know what we have in mind.

What do we have in mind, sir?

We're putting your computer expertise to work, Lieutenant.

Commander Rev's a real cowboy, isn't he?

He has a very active inner child, sir.

ATLS contact confirmed.

Sir, may I use the radio?

Go ahead, sir.

Commander, we're ready for you.

You got it, Lieutenant.

Lincoln, this is 210 Hornet commencing approach 3 .9.

Roger, 210.

Radar contact.

Approach out of the carrier in sight.

Requesting a mode 1 landing.

Mode 1 approved, 210.

You're in the box.

Okay, I'm coupling up.

Three -quarter mile.

Fall. Roger. Fall.

These numbers don't look right. I think you guys programmed it wrong.

Don't worry. We programmed it just like you did.

Now send them around. I'll double check.

No, not necessary.

Radar shows him on glide slope.

210, looking good. Continue inbound.

You don't understand.

What don't we understand, Petty Officer?

210, go manual.

System looks good. Stay coupled up.

You crashed.

Radar says he's fine.

Radar's wrong. That's why Ross crashed.

Don't sweat it, Petty Officer.

I've been a manual the whole time.

Looking good, 210.

Bring it in.

This is the trick.

You rigged it.

You left us no choice, Petty Officer.

We had a couple four wires that night.

Planes were landing long.

So I tweaked the system.

But you overcorrected.

That's why Ross came in too low.

I wanted to say something, but I... Instead, he let his widow believe that

husband had killed himself.

I don't know.

And you were willing to let the men just stand in space prison?

I never thought it would really happen, sir. You know, I can deal with

accidents, but you lied and covered up.

And for that, you're going to the brig.

How much time will I get, sir?

If I have my way, here's.

Let's go.

Sir, let me handle this.

Dakey, stop!

Dakey, wait!

You don't want to go up there. There's nothing up there.

Then be careful.

I got it.

Hey, don't come any closer. I'll jump.

Stay calm.

Hey, hey, it's freezing down there. Good, I'll die quick.

No, you won't. It'll take hours.

And the whole time you'll be thinking, what an awful mistake.

I'm not going to let you trick me again. No tricks, okay?

No tricks. Just take it easy.

I can't go to prison.

Hey, I'd be scared too, Joe.

But you can get through this.

I just want it to be over.

You can't do this to yourself, Joe.

Watch me.

Dinky, don't be a fool!

You'll never see another sunrise!

Or see a family again.

It's not worth it. Just listen to me, okay?

Let me help you.

Take my hand.

Come on, Joe.

I accept the revised findings that Lieutenant Ross did not commit suicide.

However, that does not absolve Commander Stanich of his responsibilities as a

leader. Lieutenant Ross gave clear, incontrovertible evidence of suicidal

ideation. The commander needed to respond to that.

The Navy breeds physical and mental toughness, a quality that has helped to

protect our country from foreign enemies for over 200 years.

But the Navy must also acknowledge that military men, however tough,

are not magically immune from depression, emotional crises, and mental

instability. The fact that the sailor responsible for the crash almost killed

himself is proof of that. When a man comes to his commanding officer and asks

for help, help should be provided.

Commander Stanich, your behavior was indeed regrettable.

However, you acted out of an honest belief that you were making the right

decisions for your men.

Your safety record prior to this incident was exemplary. I have no doubt

you have learned from this tragedy and would handle a similar situation

differently in the future.

Therefore, I see no reason to recommend this Article 32 to court -martial. This

hearing is adjourned.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Congratulations.

Nice job, Mac.

You too, huh?

Although you know your client is still responsible for Lieutenant Ross' death.

You never give up, do you? Lieutenant Ross' death was caused by a computer

was incorrectly programmed.

And because he was depressed. I am sure that slowed his reaction time when the

plane started having problems.

See, you always want to make life simple, huh?

But it's not.

Maddie! Hey.

I hold my students to high standards, Mr. Rapp.

I have no problem with that.

Well, Maddie has completed none of the required first semester writing

assignments. Ma 'am. I cannot give her a passing grade unless she makes up that

book. In the past four months, Maddie has written a business plan for a crop

dusting company, letters to suppliers and credit agencies, the IRS.

not to mention a 20 -page letter to the judge at a juvenile court hearing.

You're welcome to review all of them.

Well, I suppose this will do.