All language subtitles for Who.Killed.Lt.Van.Dorn.2018.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

[helicopter fluttering]

[man speaking
muffled over radio]

- [Man Over Radio] All
right, so currently

I got 13K right now,
about 13 1/2, looks good.

- [Man Over Radio] [muffled]
you like to cross by

your panel checks, over.

- [Man Over Radio]
Looks good to me, yeah.

- [Man Over Radio] You two
currently's holding steady.

[helicopter fluttering]

[slow, somber music]

- [Reporter] A Navy helicopter
exploded off the coast

of San Francisco, eight
crewmen are missing.

- [Reporter] Two military
aircraft have gone down

after colliding just north
of Hawaii's Oahu island.

[slow, somber music]

- [Reporter] 30 U.S.
Marines and a U.S. sailor

were killed today in the
crash of a Super Stallion

helicopter on this,
the deadliest day
for American forces

since the start of the war.

- [Reporter] Five people
killed in four crashes

in the course of two years.

Has the worst safety record
of any aircraft in the Navy.

[slow, somber music]

- [Mike] Reporters don't
have much of an incentive

to write about this stuff
except when it's a horror story.

But then there's
no follow through.

Well what really happened?

- [Man] Who am I suppose
to be faithful to?

Am I suppose to be faithful
to a general or a politician?

Where do your loyalties lie?

My suggestion would be my
loyalties lie to the Marines

who go die on those aircraft.

- [Nicole] He saw it happening
and he called it out.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do
anything to change it in time.

[slow, somber music]

- Lieutenant Wesley Van
Dorn was 29 years old,

from Greensboro, North Carolina.

Van Dorn was a 2007 graduate

of the United States
Naval Academy.

He was one of the
Sea Dragon pilots.

And Van Dorn was
a father of two.

- Jax, why don't you help Dad?

[toddler babbling]

[Nicole laughing]

He was, I always use
the word magnetic.

Why don't you try one more time.

[blowing]

I met him and I just was
like, "Wow, there are people

"in the world that are
actually awe-inspiring

"and you want to be around."

- Wes had a great relationship
with his enlisted guys.

He took care of all of us.

He was just really big on making
sure that all of his people

felt welcomed and
felt like a family.

- He was rambunctious,
he was fun to be around.

You're a better person because
of your time spent with him.

He'd talk to me about
what we could do better.

What can we do
better to be better?

And I think that was a question
that racked his brain a lot.

'Cause he wasn't somebody
who half-assed anything.

And that's what you
should wanna do,

especially if your life's
on the line every day.

[people chattering]

- Hey, Mom.

[slow, somber music]

- [Narrator] Wes Van
Dorn long-dreamed

of attending a service academy.

He spent hours fishing
with his grandfather,

a West Point graduate.

- [Susan] This is
fourth, fifth grade,

and on into his
high school picture.

- [Narrator] He was 19
when his mother, Susan,

dropped him off at
the Naval Academy.

- [Susan] This is
day one, quite a day.

He's thrilled here, and he's
a little thoughtful here

I would say.

But, he was very excited
about his opportunity there.

- [Man] Having been
appointed as a midshipman

in the United States Navy,
do you solemnly swear

that you will support and
defend the Constitution

of the United States
against all enemies,

foreign and domestic?

- It was a very moving
experience as a parent.

You felt that you
had done your best

to bring them to that
point and then you were

turning them over
to the military

to let them continue to develop
and grow as a human being

in the way they wanted to.

- [Man] So help you God.

- [Midshipmen] I do!

[crowd cheering]

[gentle music]

- After he got
his wings he said,

"How do you think we
should choose an airframe?"

We decided together
that the community

that would allow for
the best family life.

- [Wesley] Come on little
Jeffrey man, come on.

- He decided that he wanted
to be defined by his family.

- [Wesley] Look who
it is, it's Mommy.

- And one of his other friends,
who was in the 53 community

at the time, told him
that the hours he worked

allowed him to be home
for dinner most nights.

Was that fun?

That he would only deploy
once every couple of years.

And so Wes put 53
as his first choice.

[helicopter fluttering]

[serious music]

- Helicopters are
awesome, I mean,

to make a school bus
fly, lift off the ground,

to beat the air into submission,

it's a whole different glory

than just making a
jet go really fast

and flying like a paper plane.

- [Narrator] The two
versions of this helicopter

are practically identical.

The Navy uses the
MH-53E Sea Dragon.

It drags heavy equipment
through the water

to sweep for
underwater explosives.

[explosive booming]

[light, tense music]

The Marines use the
CH-53E Super Stallion

to move people and gear
for critical missions.

[serious music]

The 53 dates back
to the Cold War.

It can require about 40
man-hours of maintenance

for just one hour
of flight time.

- I have so many nights
where you have cried and bled

and sweat and cussed
at this helicopter.

The mentality in the
MH-53 community is that

we fight a battle
against the helicopter.

Basically means, she
never wants to fly.

And there'd be that day,
that one glorious, beautiful,

sunset bluebird day, where
you would get four 53s

all fired up at one time.

And everyone comes
and lines the hangars,

and everybody's got
their phones out.

[slow, somber music]

The sight to just watch
these four giant machines,

all at once just rise up, all
the sudden become this agile,

powerful behemoth
that's just effortlessly

flying through the sky.

[helicopters fluttering]

It's a sign of just strength.

- We had actually visited
several times in Norfolk.

We were walking around and
looking at the helicopter,

and we had his son with
us, and I said to Wes,

"Do they ever have a day
when you can fly your family

"and take us for a ride
in the helicopter?"

And I will never forget that
because Wes turned to me

and he looked me in
the eye and he said,

"Mama, I would never take you
up in this piece of crap."

[slow, sorrowful music]

And, I just looked back
at him, and I didn't know

what to say because that
was what he was flying.

[slow, somber music]

- [Narrator] The Navy 53s
entered service in 1986.

In 2010, when Van Dorn
checked into his squadron,

known as HM-14, the
helicopters were worn out,

and should've been retired.

- The Navy, in the late
90s, had started to come up

with a plan to replace
these helicopters.

And then, when that plan
goes out the window,

it's kinda like
they're in limbo.

- [Narrator] The Navy tried
new ships, mine-sweeping gear,

and towing with less
powerful helicopters.

Nothing worked as planned, so
they were stuck with the 53.

And because the relic helicopter

was destined to be replaced,

money for spare parts and
maintenance was hard to come by.

- Commanding officers
of the squadrons

are applying pressure
down on these guys

to keep the aircraft going
with fewer and fewer resources.

And so, out of that, all
these bad habits formed

in which guys were
taking shortcuts.

And that's when this
culture of just get her done

kind of took hold.

- When I checked into
HM-14 I was about as green

as it comes to Naval aviation.

Everybody has these
preconceived notions

of what aircraft maintenance is

because you've changed a tire
on a car, or changed your oil.

That's not what it is.

There's a million
preset publications

that are figured out by
engineers, and they've decided

this is the way that you're
gonna work on this aircraft.

So, [sighing] to put it mildly,

we didn't do that.

It kinda always turned in
to a flight hours first,

safety second kind of a thing.

And it was kinda one of those,
as long as nothin' messed up

along the way, and as long
as too large of a crowd

didn't see it, it was okay.

[helicopter fluttering]

- [Woman] There's gotta
be something wrong.

Shit.

[crashing]

- [Narrator] The 53
has a serious accident

more than twice as often as
the average military aircraft.

- Holy fuck.

- [Narrator] Three went down
in a two-month span in 2012.

Van Dorn's sister squadron lost
one on a runway in Bahrain,

and another in a
mountain ravine in Oman.

[speaking foreign language]

Van Dorn's unit lost one too,
in a radish field in Korea.

- When you have a
string of crashes

in a short amount of time,
it doesn't necessarily

give you the warm
and fuzzies inside.

And you don't get
the warm and fuzzies

when you're on an aircraft
and it's having these issues.

And I knew aviation wasn't
always the safest thing to do,

but at that time I was young
and I was wet behind the ears.

I was just learning, so I
didn't ask too many questions.

But I really began to
realize there were problems

the summer of 2012.

- [Narrator] HM-14 had to ferry
four 53s across the country,

to an exercise in San Diego.

- The aircraft I was on kept
getting main gear box chips.

That means the gears
are coming apart.

We left Norfolk, Virginia
with four aircraft,

and by the time we
got to California

we only had one
aircraft that was up

and able to do the
missions for that exercise.

It's not performing
to the capability

that was advertised to you.

Why are we having
all these problems?

- He would just come home

and he'd have that
frustrated look on his face.

What he was most
frustrated about was that

he never got to fly.

He would be on a flight
schedule, he would go into work,

he would sit there, and
he wouldn't get to fly

because something
would be broken.

He would text me and
keep me kinda updated

and tell me how many hours late

he was going to be that day.

[slow, somber music]

He didn't have a grand theory

on why exactly they
were happening,

but they were little things
that happened repeatedly

that he thought was perhaps
evidence of a bigger trend.

[slow, somber music]

- [Man] Okay, get out.

- [Man] Watch your step, yeah.

- If that shit is full--
- There's the irrigation ditch

- Huh?
- The irrigation ditch.

- The 2012 crash in
Korea was the first time

that Wes really put
two and two together.

- [Narrator] Van Dorn was one
of the first on the scene.

The Navy interviewed him

when they opened
their investigation.

- [Interviewer] All right,
start off by, say your name.

- [Wes] All right, I'm
Lieutenant Wes Van Dorn.

- [Interviewer] What
was your take as far as

working with the troops?

- [Wes] They're
hard-working young kids.

They at least start
out motivated.

But they're only gonna
do what's asked of 'em.

And then, senior enlisted,
seems like they don't really

care about their
junior enlisted.

And I think that's a huge
issue in our squadron.

- [Narrator] In his testimony,
Van Dorn said he was worried

that enlisted sailors were
ignoring the step-by-step guides

on how to care for the 53,

books that sailors and
Marines call the pubs.

- [Interviewer] Well, do
you do the job per the pub?

- [Wes] Well, yeah.

- [Interviewer] Yeah, but did
you do the job per the pub,

step one, step two, step three?

- [Wes] Well, no.

"Listen guys, we all
know that's not the pub.

"Why are you guys not doing it?"

"Well sir, it's a lotta
work to do it that way.

"It's really hard,
we've got planes to fly,

"we've got other
stuff to do, we got--"

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- [Wes] There's a reason
why we have these pubs.

If our kids aren't being
properly taught how to use 'em,

what's the point?

- [Interviewer] So
you're suggesting

that the training failure
and the cultural failure

has simply been allowed
to perpetuate over time.

- [Wes] The officer leadership
has been non-existent.

- [Narrator] Van Dorn
felt that senior officers

didn't want to admit
that there were problems

at the squadron,
or with the 53s.

According to military
records, he submitted a memo

to superiors saying,
skipper after skipper

has continued to fudge numbers

because they didn't want
to be the whistleblower.

- You're fighting
an uphill battle,

and you're not getting
the things you need,

and you're expected
to do more with less.

And, when you mix that
in with poor maintenance,

it's a recipe for disaster.

[machine whirring]

[slow, somber music]

- [Narrator] The first fatal
crash in a 54E came in 1984.

The helicopter broke apart
as it was lifting a truck.

Four Marines died.

A mechanic who recorded a
tape about his concerns,

died in a crash two years later.

Congress opened
an investigation.

By early 1987, 20 people had
died in training accidents

on the 53E.

- A Navy helicopter exploded
off the coast of San Francisco

in heavy fog Monday,
eight crewmen are missing.

Rescuers do not expect
to find any survivors.

- There was pieces of debris
from the size of a quarter

to as large as a Volkswagen.

- [Narrator] The death
toll ticked upward,

both in the military,
and at the manufacturer.

- CH-53E, or Super Stallion
helicopter as it is called,

crashed here at
Sikorsky this morning,

killing all four
people on board.

The helicopter went down
during a test flight.

- The helicopter full of
Marines, and one Navy sailor,

had gone down.

The sailor and 30 U.S.
Marines were killed.

- [Reporter] The CH-53 Super
Stallion, like this one--

- [Narrator] 31 dead
in a single crash.

It made for the deadliest
day for U.S. troops

in the entire Iraq war.

25 fatal accidents.

Some were the
fault of the pilot,

and others, the helicopter.

By the end of 2013,
over 100 service members

had been killed on the 53E,

not one the result
of enemy fire.

- The burden of everything
that he saw going on

weighed heavily on Wes.

[slow, somber music]

He felt like no matter what
he said or what he wrote

or who he complained to,
nothing was changing.

- [Wes] If anyone should
care about what's happening

on that aircraft,
it should be me

and the other pilots, I think.

It makes sense to me,

'cause I'm the one
who's gonna get in it

and have something terrible
happen if it doesn't go right.

[light, somber music]
[birds cawing]

- [Reporter] Tens of millions
of Americans face a day

of dangerously cold weather.

- [Reporter] Subzero
temperatures blanketing

so much of our country.

Take a look at these
wind chills everywhere.

- [Reporter] Minus
40 or even worse,

and that's causing
all sorts of problems

including burst pipes
and power outages,

and this is no time--

- [Narrator] Besides the
cold, it was suppose to be

a routine morning.

If the sailors of HM-14

could get their
helicopters in the air,

they'd fly a run-of-the-mill
mine sweeping exercise.

- When I showed up
at the squadron,

found out one of the
air crew members,

their pipes had burst at
their house, so I filled in,

because I was one of the
only available crewmen

at the squadron at that time.

[helicopter whirring]

- [Narrator] Dylan Boone joined
air crewman Brian Collins,

crew chief Justin Godfrey,
co-pilot Sean Snyder,

with Van Dorn in
the pilot's seat.

Mechanic Chris
Humme came in early,

and checked to be sure
the freezing temperatures

weren't causing extra
problems for the helicopters.

- Normal troubleshooting
stuff comes up,

this light popped on, this
circuit breaker pops this,

check this, check
this, normal stuff.

But everything
appeared to be fine.

I had a pretty good rapport
with Lieutenant Van Dorn.

He just wanted to
know it was good.

He was like, "Humme,
just tell me shit's good.

"You're qualified, I trust you."

"Roger that, sir, shit's
good, shit's good."

And I slapped him on the back,

and I turned around and
I got outta the cockpit

and I walked off the
aircraft and it flew away.

[helicopter fluttering]

- One, one, base, we are
proceeding to the tow fields.

I'll tell you what, we'll
just stop there at 15 feet,

we got plenty of
power comin' to 75.

So we're good.

Tracks set in the water.

- [Man Over Radio] Cleared
one, roger 84, should be nice.

- It was just a regular
training mission.

I guess that's where
some of my anger lies.

Because it could've been
avoided, should've been avoided.

[wires sizzling]

[swishing]

I felt some heat blow on
my neck and turned around

and saw that we had flames
and smoke in the cabin.

It was like a flamethrower

that was just eating
everything in its path.

[scary music]

And, by the time you know it,

you're just wishing for the
fire to go out, and it's not.

And you're just trying to
get some air and you can't.

And in a weird, sadistic
way you're thankful

that it finally hit something

because it's either
you're gonna drown

or the fire's gonna be
put out by the water.

And, that was your
escape, is a wreck.

[crashing]
[water splashing]

I woke up probably
about 20 seconds later

about 20 feet under
water with the aircraft,

and I swam to the surface.

The water was 40 degrees.

Could hear screams in the
distance, didn't know from who.

Eventually, we
finally popped a smoke

and our sister
aircraft came over

and started radioing for help.

[eerie music]

- [Narrator] The debris
field covered the area

of four football fields.

But most of the
helicopter quickly sank,

the remnants of the chopper
known as Vulcan 5-4-3.

[computer keys clicking]

- One of the newer guys
to the squadron comes in

and he says, "4-3's
in the water."

I didn't even turn around
and I like, "Say what?"

And he said, "4-3's
in the water."

And then you just
start panicking.

Did I do this?

Did I tell him that shit
was good and it wasn't?

And you know you did it right,
you just, you don't know.

Because it's a crash,
there's a helicopter

that crashed into the ocean

on a day that it's
10 below zero.

And you have this mental
picture of these men freezing

in the coldest day,
the coldest day that...

[slow, somber music]

- [Dylan] It was the longest
45 minutes of my life.

It was fuckin' cold.

- I got a text message,
just said, is Wes okay?

We heard that a 53 went down.

[bold music]

- We're back on the air
now with breaking news

where we've learned a military
helicopter has gone down

off the coast, five people
on board we're told.

- [Reporter] The
helicopter went down

about 18 nautical miles off
the Virginia Beach coast.

Four of the five
helicopter crew members

are already en route to Sentara
Norfolk General Hospital.

- Nicole texted me 9-1-1.

I knew I needed to call her.

And, [sniffling]

we just got in the car
and started driving

to Virginia Beach.

- I asked a hospital
administrator to come back in

and I looked her in
the eyes and I said,

"I see these
chaplains walking by.

"I don't know what
they're here for.

"I've been told that my
husband is in surgery.

"But God help you
if he's near me

"and I don't get to
see him and he dies."

She came back a
minute or two later

and she said, "Come with me."

- [Wes] Pool splash,
kick, kick, kick.

[child laughing]

Pool splash, pool splash.

- They let me hold his hand

and lay my head on his chest.

And then I saw the, I
think he was a neurologist

because he has a little
flashlight in his hand

and he kept goin' like
this in Wes' eyes.

Hey, bub.

And then he kinda looked
at the other doctors

and that's when I knew.

I just, I laid on him
for the next seven hours

waiting for his
parents to arrive.

And that was when the Navy
walked in to notify me

that he had been in
a helicopter crash.

[gentle music]

- [Reporter] Let's
turn our attention

to that deadly helicopter crash.

Today is a struggle
for the community.

- Just kinda sittin' there numb.

My wife came home and I was
sitting in, basically, the dark.

And I just couldn't hold it
back, I just started bawling

like a child.

I just remember saying
over and over again,

"They're dead, they're hurt,
they're dead, they're hurt.

"I don't know if I did
it, it could've been me.

"What if I did it?"

The mechanic in you, the
perfectionist in you,

you just can't stop
thinking about,

could I have stopped this?

Could I have changed something
that made this different?

[slow, somber music]

- [Narrator] It
would be eight months

before Humme knew for sure
that he wasn't at fault.

All he knew then was
that three sailors

had died in the crash.

[slow, somber music]

Air crewman Brian Collins from
Truckee, California, was 25.

He'd just celebrated his
first wedding anniversary.

Co-pilot, Sean Snyder,
also from California,

was 39, and the father of four.

He was found with the wreckage
a week after the accident.

Van Dorn died a month
shy of his 30th birthday.

At the Naval Academy's
Memorial Hall,

which commemorates graduates
who died in the line of duty,

Van Dorn's name was
etched into the wall.

He was the first in
his class to die.

- Hey Scott, it's Mike
Hixenbaugh at the Pilot.

I left a message on your cell.

I was sitting at my
desk on January 8, 2014,

and an alert goes out
on Twitter from the Navy

saying that a
helicopter had crashed

off the coast of Virginia.

- [Narrator] Just two months
earlier, military reporter

Mike Hixenbaugh had written
his first major article

on the 53.

It detailed its
history and problems.

He'd interviewed Navy
Captain Todd Flannery,

the East Coast's top
helicopter pilot.

- And, he said, "We've
come a long way,

"but we still have
a long way to go.

"But we're heading in
the right direction."

- A military helicopter has
gone down off the coast,

five people on board.

- When that alert came through,

the thoughts rushing
through my mind are

going back to my
interview with Flannery

just two months earlier
when he's telling me

that all the problems
that they've had

with these helicopters,
all of the cultural issues,

the leadership problems,
the maintenance issues.

And my mind is racing,
thinking, what happened here?

- Good afternoon everyone,
I'm Captain Todd Flannery,

Commander, Helicopter
Sea Combat Wing Atlantic.

I'm joined by--

- [Mike] I remember
asking Flannery that day--

- Today has definitely been
a tough day on all of us.

- Whether he felt like
these aircraft were safe.

Do you have any concerns

about the safety
of these aircraft?

- No, I don't, I do not.

- Even on that day,
he maintained that,

"Yes, I believe that
these are safe aircraft."

I started working
on a story that,

in much more detail than
I'd previously done,

told the story of
the Sea Dragon.

It was about a month after
the crash when it published.

- [Narrator] The
front-page spread

caught the attention
of Nicole Van Dorn.

- He wasn't just accepting
the facts given to him

by the Navy at face
value, was inquisitive.

Maybe he's willing
to break the mold.

Someone who's professional
enough to not just chase a story

that isn't there, but
if there is truth to it,

I also want someone who's
not afraid to dig deeper.

- It was a day or two after
that, late one evening,

I got a text message from a
number I didn't recognize,

and it was Nicole Van Dorn.

- My husband expressed
to me before he died

that he was really worried
about things going on

in the squadron, and he
kept copious records,

and I don't know
if I have anything,

but I also need a
place to bring it all.

- The text sent
chills up my spine.

It's a tragedy, it's a
guy who sees a problem,

commits to trying to fix it,
and the problem kills him.

- I guess from the
very beginning I just,

I assumed that if
I wanted answers,

really transparent,
truthful answers,

I was gonna have
to get them myself.

Once the helicopter
was recovered

and it was in a hangar,
I said, "I wanna see it.

"I wanna know what
actually caused the crash.

"If it was Wes' fault, I
wanna know it was Wes' fault.

"If it was one of the air
crewmen's fault, I wanna know.

"If it was a failing of the
airframe, I wanna know."

- I-I-I care not to
speculate on that.

- [Narrator] To get the
answers she was seeking,

Nicole pressed Captain
Flannery for updates.

- He was very kind and
he called me a lot,

and when I went to see
the wreckage he said,

"The way it's looking is
that Wes was not at fault.

"I want you to know that
to help you rest easy."

That he did nothing wrong,

that it was just
a freak accident.

That's where the truth stopped
for me because, I don't,

after everything that
Wes had said to me,

and everything that I
knew about the airframe,

there was just no way in my mind

that it could've just
been a freak accident.

[slow, somber music]

- [Narrator] Navy
investigators ruled out

problems with the engines,
swashplate, and tail rotor,

issues that had plagued
the 53 in the past.

- I took a picture of where I
thought everything went wrong.

One of these zip ties is
what started everything.

- [Narrator] The
confidential Navy report

found that a simple
plastic zip tie

unleashed the unlikely
chain of events.

[zip tie clicking]

The tiny nylon strap secured
a bundle of electrical wires

near a metal fuel tube.

Under constant
vibration during flight,

the zip tie cut away the
wires' protective insulation,

and wore a hole
in the fuel line.

Through that tiny hole, a
pressurized mist of jet fuel

escaped into the cabin and
arched with the exposed wires.

- So the fire took place here.

The report tells you there
was a fireball that happened.

You can see how close
to the cockpit it is,

relatively, compared to
the size of the helicopter.

- Is there no way of just going.

I asked the captain
again, "Are you confident

"in the safety of this
aircraft," and he said, "Yes."

- Admittedly it is
an aging aircraft,

and requires
extensive maintenance,

but continues to
perform a vital mission

that no other helicopter

in the U.S. military
inventory can accomplish.

- Very hard to think that
your son lost his life

because of cracked
wiring and a zip tie.

- [Narrator] The Navy ordered
the inspection of all 53s

for signs of chafing.

[clicking]

After the first
anniversary of the crash,

Wes Van Dorn's
story went national.

[slow, somber music]

- Now to an NBC
News investigation

in partnership with the
Virginian-Pilot newspaper

and the Berkeley Investigative
Reporting Program.

- [Reporter] ] Captain
Todd Flannery was in charge

of Van Dorn's Sea
Dragon squadron.

He took us inside one
of the huge helicopters.

But in the case
of the Sea Dragon,

it was the worst safety record
of any aircraft in the Navy.

- It does.

- Five people killed
in four crashes

in the course of two years.

- Yes.

- Those are odds I don't think
most of us would wanna take.

- They are not good, those
numbers are not good at all.

- How many crashes
do we have to have?

- We can't have another
crash, we just can't.

[deep, somber music]

- In the days after
the story published,

several people kind of
came out of the woodwork.

[deep, somber orchestral music]

One of the sources provided
documents that showed

that the wiring fuel line
problems hadn't been fixed,

the very kind that
caused the crash.

[deep, somber orchestral music]

These aircraft were still
flying and nothing had changed.

- I got up in the morning,

I'm having a cup of coffee
and I read this article,

and I'm like, okay,
that's a Marine airplane,

we have a problem.

And I called my Navy
counterparts and said,

"We have a problem here and
we need to get it fixed."

- [Narrator] No one
was more surprised

to learn about the
failed inspection effort

than Lieutenant
General Jon Davis.

He was named the Marine
Corps' top aviator

five months after
Van Dorn's crash.

He was responsible for
the fleet of Marine 53s.

Now retired, he was
the only senior officer

willing to be interviewed
for this film.

- Try not to lose my
composure, but I was unhappy.

I was concerned.

From hey, we're good
to, we're not so good.

An independent person
out there taking pictures

found things that aren't in
line with what we thought,

people thought the
standard should be.

So yeah, I wanted
facts, I wanted data,
I wanted it quickly.

- [Narrator] Davis
grounded the fleet.

Sailors and Marines spent months

looking for signs of chafing,

while pilots were
on the sidelines.

- No one's gonna fly
until we find out

if we've got a problem
out there in the fleet,

which was the
responsible thing to do.

Stop, everybody stop.

And no one in the Marine Corp
faulted me for that, nobody.

- [Narrator] But there's
clear evidence that the Navy

and Marines knew for decades,

even when the 53 was
still in prototype stage,

that there was another problem.

The type of wiring
on the helicopters
was a serious threat.

- This is a piece of
Kapton-insulated wire.

It's still made to this day
and flies on over a third

of the world's
commercial planes.

- [Narrator] The BBC
used the Navy's research

when it published a report on
a wiring type known as Kapton.

- Kapton is best when
young, it's featherweight,

the thickness of only
about three human hairs,

flame resistant, tough.

That was the good news,
and this is the bad.

[sizzling]

The Kapton insulation can
explode like a firework

if it's chafed and
rubs against metal.

- [Narrator] Particularly
bad for the Navy,

tests showed that the
problems get worse

in wet environments.

[sizzling]

- [BBC Reporter] Kapton
insulation burned to a crisp.

- [Narrator] In the late
80s, the Navy decided

to discontinue the use of
Kapton wire in its aircraft.

But the ban was a half measure.

It applied only to
new 53s and repairs,

not to the 151 helicopters
built with Kapton.

- If everybody knows that
this wiring insulation is bad,

it shouldn't be used, then
everybody that's in the chain

of it should know better,
and should not let it happen.

- [Narrator] Louis Franecke
argued before the Supreme Court

in a case involving an
earlier version of the 53.

He sued the manufacturer,
claiming a design flaw

led to a pilot's death.

- You can't sue the military
for things that go wrong.

- Hand salute.

- Some lieutenant says,
"Go run over that hill,"

and you get shot.

Maybe it wasn't the
right thing to do,

he should've said, "Run
over the other hill,"

and you wouldn't get shot,
you can't sue for that.

We all accept that.

But the products
are something else.

- [Man] More arching
and burning occurred,

which re-tripped this breaker,
and caused four more to trip.

- They're not
volunteering to be killed

by their own military

or the military products
that're supplied.

- [Narrator] Franecke
lost the case.

The Court found in favor
of the manufacturer.

Like the military, government
contractors were now immune

as long as they
followed design specs,

and the government had
knowledge of potential dangers.

- The families who
have lost a loved one

because of a defective
military product

have essentially no recourse.

They are the least powerful
to ever stop using it

or have something changed.

The game is rigged, it's
rigged against them.

The people who are really
hurt have no power.

- [Interviewer] Should
he still be alive?

- Sure, of course he should be.

He should be alive
because that product

shouldn't have that insulation
that causes that problem.

Could he have been
killed by something else?

Maybe, but that's
not what did it.

What did it, is a history
of people ignoring

what needed to be done,
and should've been fixed.

- [Narrator] Court records
show that Sikorsky,

the manufacturer, twice
recommended replacing Kapton

on the 53, after learning
of safety issues.

That was more than three
decades before Van Dorn's crash.

After a third proposal, the
Navy decided to explore removal.

Navy safety records reveal
that Kapton has been involved

in more than 50 incidents
on the aircraft.

One report from 1999
foreshadowed Van
Dorn's accident.

- It's almost as if I'm reading

the Safety Investigation
Report from Wes' crash.

"The location of the hole
on the pipe indicates

"chafing had occurred
during normal

"aircraft vibrations in flight."

- One of the plastic zip ties
wrapped around the wire bundle

rubbed against the pipe.

Over an unknown period of time,

these components became
soaked with fuel,

and they eventually ignited.

Well I'm glad the damage
was minor for them.

I wish that would've
been our case.

I would take that
over, that's shitty.

Why wasn't this, was
this ever addressed?

I don't think so.

That was 15 years.

- [Narrator] The
investigation into Boone

and Van Dorn's crash
never mentions Kapton.

The maintenance log shows
that some of the wiring

had been replaced, though not
at the site of the explosion.

- [Interviewer] Why
would it have still been

on that MH-53E that
crashed in Virginia?

- I don't know, I
don't know the why.

And I didn't know about Kapton
wiring problems, per se.

I knew we had a plan to replace
our Kapton wiring by 2019.

- [Narrator] After we
interviewed General Davis,

we found a Navy memo from
2009 that sounded the alarm

about Kapton's dangers.

[suspenseful music]

Senior officers
signed the document,

approving a plan to only
gradually replace Kapton.

One of the signatures
belonged to General Davis.

We went back to
him and Davis said

he doesn't recall the memo,

but he said that replacing
Kapton in phases,

and implementing two
other safety measures,

seemed reasonable.

[popping and crackling]

Despite the tests, warnings,
and decades of knowledge,

the Navy said it
never had enough money

to replace all the
wiring in the 53s.

- One of the things
Captain Flannery told me

when I sat down with
him back in 2013,

was that the Sea Dragon,
for several years had been

what he called a "bill payer."

So in other words, funding
to say replace Kapton wiring

would be rerouted
someplace else.

'Cause the Sea Dragons
were gonna go away.

And so that money would
be put to some other need,

some other mission, some other
more high profile platform.

- [Narrator] The Navy called
Kapton the highest ranked

safety risk in the fleet.

But just months before
Van Dorn's crash,

the Pentagon diverted funds
away from Kapton replacement,

further delaying the effort
to remove the deadly wiring.

- How dare you.

[sniffling]

It's just irresponsible.

[slow, somber music]

I just don't see how you can

not maintain the
military equipment

that all of these fine
people's lives depend on

to the upmost of our ability.

- I look at the moon,
it looks like a boat.

My dad's arms, my dad's
arms are like a boat too.

I think any widow would tell you

that it doesn't get easier.

The sting is still the same.

My dad looks at me, and
I climb onto his lap.

I've had something to
connect with Wes through,

which is trying
to finish his work

and trying to get
his voice out there.

- [Interviewer]
How will you know

when your work now is complete?

- I think I'll know
that it's complete

when people stop coming
to me with concerns.

Night babe, love you.

- [Child] Love you too.

[deep, somber music]

- I read the full story
in the Virginia-Pilot.

And I was like, "Van Dorn,
I remember that accident,"

and said, "Hey, this may be
more than just a Navy issue.

"This may be a 53-wide issue,
across both communities,

the Marine Corp and the Navy.

And that kinda prompted
me to contact Mike,

and then get in touch
with Nicole after that.

- [Narrator] Captain James
Skelton flew the Marine version

of the 53 for seven years.

As a quality assurance officer,

he kept a sharp eye on
maintenance and safety,

and he found himself at odds
with leaders primarily focused

on getting aircraft in the air.

- In the infantry, you can
smash a guy for complaining.

Boo hoo, cry me a river,
I don't give a damn.

Get your ass back out
on the front line.

That's fine, that's
how it's suppose to be.

[wind whipping]
[sand sprinkling]

But, if you're in the
aviation environment,

it doesn't work that way.

The lowest guy should
be able to bring up

the biggest problem, to anyone
he needs to bring it up to.

- When you start out as
a pilot, you're young.

You're a young,
impressionable Marine,

you're a first lieutenant,
you're definitely in a position

where you're not gonna
question authority.

Once you get a little bit older,

and once you become a
helicopter aircraft commander,

there's responsibilities
imparted on you

that are more than just
saying, "Yes, sir."

It's not that you
don't say, "Yes, sir,"

'cause you definitely do,
and I firmly believe in that.

But you're not just a
yes man at that point.

Especially in my ability as
a quality assurance officer,

I'm responsible for the ultimate
safety of that helicopter

and the Marines that get on it.

You have to have the folks
who will stop something

if there's a train
wreck about to happen.

[deep, serious music]

- [Narrator] Enlisted
Marines in Skelton's unit

complained about a culture

that chose flight
hours over safety.

They said they were belittled,
humiliated, and slapped down

when they tried to point
out safety problems.

More than a dozen wrote
letters about their concerns,

and dropped them off
on Skelton's desk.

- If they have to come
to me as a captain

in a different department,
then there's a serious problem.

I decided I was gonna
write my own letter,

and I was gonna run it
up the chain of command.

What I anticipated would be,
"Okay, let's take a time out,

"let's figure out
what's happening here.

"Why are these guys so upset,"

it became more of
an admonishment from
the senior leadership

that we were wrong, that
there was a mutiny going on

in the lower ranks
and that we needed to

pull our head out of
our asses, basically,

and get back out there
and do what we're told.

- I've seen this.

- You have?
- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] Have you
seen the whole packet?

- I remember asking
questions about this note.

I wanted to kinda
get to the bottom

of whether these
are valid or not.

[deep, somber music]

People couldn't
corroborate that as far as,

those are accurate complaints.

Could be the complaints
of a young guy

out there in one unit.
- It looks like

a dozen young guys.
- Yeah, yeah.

- [Interviewer] That are
complaining about it.

- Yeah, I only saw
Skelton's, yeah.

But there, I think, bottom
line is, we wanted to go fix,

we needed to fix
the 53 community.

What are they saying now?

Really, to me would
be, okay, got it.

We had a problem then, are
they fixed now, yes or no?

I believe they are fixed now.

So it's easy to go,
"Hey, things suck."

So the hard part is figuring
out a thoughtful way forward,

getting that funded,
and driving it home,

which is exactly what the
Marine Corp is doing right now.

[drumming music]

- It was depressing to walk
all the way back to your shop

and have to go tell those
Marines that their concerns

were not gonna be listened to.

I was disgusted by it, I'm
disgusted by it to this day.

Not only was I disgusted
with one or two individuals,

I was disgusted
with an entire unit.

[drumming music]

This isn't about me, this
is about those young Marines

who get on the aircraft,
they were failed.

[drumming music]

[water lapping]
[gentle music]

- The kind of situation
that you are seeing

with the helicopters,

is very typical of things
I've seen over the years.

It is basically a
predictable consequence

of a screwed-up priority system.

Not predictable, inevitable.

And, because it is inevitable,
you can see it ahead of time,

and when you continue this
behavior into the future,

it basically boils down
to malice aforethought.

- When Chuck Spinney talks
about defense cost overruns,

Congress listens, and so
do his Pentagon bosses.

[somber orchestral music]

- [Narrator] Chuck Spinney
spent more than 25 years

as an analyst in the Pentagon.

- We projected that our
monetization costs in 1982

would be here, they actually
turned out to be here.

That's a mismatch of 100%.

Now, we can't change this cost--

- [Narrator] In the early
80s, he briefed Congress

on how Pentagon spending
was impacting readiness,

and led to parts shortages,
disgruntled maintenance crews,

and pilots who were
short on flight time.

30 years later, Van
Dorn still wrestled

with the same problems.

- If what you're saying is true,

then we not only have
a budget problem,

I think that we frankly have

a major problem in
national defense.

- The number one
priority in the Pentagon

is to pump up the budgets
that're associated with

the development and
purchasing of new weapons.

Now, if you pump those up,
you basically try to hold down

the money that's spent on
operating existing weapons.

In terms of readiness,
training, buying spare parts,

maintenance, things like that.

And, in the case of the CH-53s,
maybe one of those cutbacks

was saying, "Hey, we
can live a little longer

"with this shitty wire."

- [Interviewer] Readiness
is first and foremost

in the Marine Corp.

- It is.

- [Interviewer] And the
CH-53E was not ready.

- It was not ready
to do all the things

we needed to do, that's a fact.

- [Interviewer] And what put
it in the state that it was in?

- I think, one, we had
some budget challenges

inside the Department
of Defense.

But the money's
being pulled from our

Department of Defense budgets

at the same we're floor
deployed and fighting.

So, very challenging environment
out there for sustainment.

- [Interviewer] Some
people say that the costs

of new weapons are constantly
taking away resources

from programs like the 53.

Do you agree with
that assessment?

- I don't, I don't, I think
that you've gotta balance.

You can't fly the
old metal forever.

You have to keep pace with

changing threat
requirements out there.

You can't just say, "We're
just gonna take care of the old

"and not do the new," so
you have to balance that.

- I agree, you do
have to modernize,

you have to support
the fleet in being.

You have to do both.

But you can't get there from
here doin' business as usual.

That's what we've been
arguing about for 30 years.

- [Narrator] Spinney
was one of a small group

in the Pentagon
and on Capitol Hill

focused on military reform.

Another was Pierre
Sprey, who spent 20 years

as a weapons analyst
and designer.

- The idea that we're
having safety problems,

we're having
maintenance problems,

just because the total defense
budget is not big enough,

is ludicrous.

[dramatic banging]

[dramatic music]

There's plenty of money.

[beeping]

But you can't do what's
really needed for the people,

and buy all the glitzy
toys that the Congress

and the industry and
the generals want.

New stuff means big budgets,

and new stuff means
issuing contracts,

and issuing contracts means
that high-ranking officers

and high-ranking
civilians will have lovely

defense industry jobs
when they retire.

That revolving door,

that's incredibly damaging
to national defense.

- [Narrator] The
problems that come

with a powerful
defense establishment,

perpetual war, and its
impact on democracy,

were spotted decades
ago by war hero

turned president,
Dwight Eisenhower.

- [Dwight] Good evening
my fellow Americans.

- [Narrator] In his farewell
address, he gave it a name.

- We must guard
against the acquisition

of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought

by the military-industrial
complex.

- The military-industrial
complex is basically

what some political
scientists call

an iron triangle
of relationships.

Those three corners being
the military, the Congress,

and the contractors.

And how money circulates
around that triangle,

is the key to understanding
what's going on.

It's basically a little bit like

a bait and switch operation.

You basically downplay the
future costs of a new weapon.

They say it'll be easy
to maintain, it'll
be more effective,

and we estimate it's
gonna cost this.

Then the political engineers
start distributing that money

as quickly as
possible to as many

Congressional
districts as possible.

Then, once the true
cost of the program

starts to manifest itself,

there's nothing you
can do about it,

because the program's got
too many vested interests

spread all over the country.

The F-35 is the
classic case in point.

- The richest contract
in the history

of the Pentagon finally awarded.

The aerospace company
Lockheed Martin

have been chosen over Boeing
to build a new fighter plane

for the U.S. and Britain.

[deep, pounding music]

- As president, I've continued
to make historic investments

to keep our armed forces strong.

- Arbitrary budget cuts have
emasculated our military

and harmed our ability
dramatically to
defend this nation.

[deep, pounding music]

- Let's modernize, we need to
respond to evolving threats.

- If I'm president
of the United States,

and Congress tries
to cut the military,

I will veto that
in a millisecond.

[deep, pounding music]

- We've always said we need
to increase defense spending

for our armed forces.

- The two year budget agreement
I just reached with Congress

will provide $700 billion in
defense funding this year.

And next year, we will raise
that number to $716 billion.

That's a lot of money.

[audience applauding]

- The same thing's
happening again.

They're just throwing
money at the Pentagon.

It's guaranteed to get
worse, it can't get better

'cause they're rewarding
all the kinds of behavior

that created the problem.

- There's zero
difference between the
two political parties,

none whatsoever, because they're
receiving the same money.

The military-industrial
complex is highly bipartisan.

As long as they
can keep that money

flowing in the right direction,

everything is smooth
and hunky-dory.

- That's the kinda craziness
we've gotten ourselves into.

- [Interviewer] You're
describing a very
complex situation.

- Yeah, no shit. [laughing]

But it's making a
lot of people rich.

That's the key point, a lot
of people are benefiting

from this lunacy.

Generals are going through
the revolving doors.

Lieutenant colonels and colonels

are going through
revolving doors.

Contractors are
making big profits,

and congressmen are basically
gettin' lots of pork

in their districts, which
enables them to increase

their longevity and
power and wealth.

Everybody wins, except
of course the soldier

at the pointy end of the
spear, and the taxpayer.

[jet engine roaring]

- I love the Navy.

I mean, I come from
a big Navy family.

There's chiefs in my family,

there's master
chiefs in my family.

There's a lot of pride, and
that's all I wanted to do

was just make everybody proud.

- [Narrator] Chris Humme
was widely regarded

as one of the top
mechanics at HM-14.

He was also the sailor
who told Wes Van Dorn

that his helicopter
was safe to fly

just two hours before
the fire broke out.

He battled nightmares
for months.

In the wake of the
crash, he grew frustrated

with too much business as usual.

- I'm not a politician,
I'm just a mechanic

who saw a lotta things
being done the wrong way,

and I tried to voice it.

And I think as a whole,
that has a lot to do

with me getting pushed out.

- I've told it
politely so many times

that I'm done
telling it politely.

Basically, I'm
coming clean with,

we're doing illegal maintenance.

[guns tapping]

I get a message, skipper
wants to talk to you.

"Come in, sit down," and
I realize very quickly

this is not a conversation of
anyone wanting to talk about

the letter I wrote other
than how inappropriate

the letter that I wrote was.

And I was just dumbfounded,
I couldn't believe this.

And then the one that
really shocked me

was the command master chief,
recommended that I read a book

called "How to Win Friends
and Influence People."

[drumming music]

- [Narrator] The Navy
questions Humme's credibility.

They say he lied about a
maintenance mistake he made

in the aftermath of the crash.

He was disciplined for it.

Later, when he took
his daughter to school

instead of going to a lecture
about weekend behavior

and personal safety,
his commanding officer

had grounds for dismissal.

Humme's career in
the Navy was over.

- I just basically
point blank asked him,

"Sir, has this
got anything to do

"with a lot of the
concerns I've raised?

"Some of the issues that I know

"that you've talked to me about

"with some of my ways
of approaching things."

Pretty much looked
me in the face

and told me that
I poked the bear.

I poked the bear too many times

and now I've gotta deal with it.

- The reaction typically
of the system is,

this guy is dangerous, this
guy might talk to a reporter,

this guy might talk
to a congressman.

How do we get rid of him?

And then they're
on him like a hawk.

Every time that guy
fails to tie a shoelace,

he's up before a board.

You can take anybody and
drive 'em outta the service

in three to six months if
you're on him like that.

- [Narrator] Humme
moved home to Tennessee.

He now works at an auto dealer.

- It's certainly not the
excitement of the flight line,

and traveling the world
and all that stuff.

It's a desk job in Knoxville.

But, I don't have to worry
about towing the company line

and covering stuff up.

[telephone ringing]

Thank you for choosing PALS
Knoxville, this is Chris.

- When you ask why individuals
can't fix this thing,

most people just say,
"It's too much of a risk."

And remember also, they're
conditioned culturally

to put faith in the
authority of the system.

So even if they see
something wrong,

they're biased to say,

"Maybe I just don't
see the big picture.

"After all, he's a general
and I'm just a lieutenant."

- My commanding officer actually
said that directly to me.

He said, "You just don't
see the big picture."

Well, my only
response to that is,

"If the big picture is
people crashing and dying

"and doing things the wrong way,

"then the big picture is wrong."

A broken system killed Wes,

killed Sean, killed
Brian, broke Dylan.

I mean, a flawed
system did that.

[slow, somber music]

[breathing heavily]

- [Narrator] Dylan Boone
was medically separated

and honorably
discharged in 2015.

[slow, somber music]

- The scar always gives
me trouble with my hair.

- [Narrator] The
aftermath of the crash

brought a series
of false starts.

Different jobs, different
living situations,

and that's on top of
the five surgeries.

- [Interviewer] What's
it like to survive

a helicopter crash?

- It sucks.

I know there's guys who
actually served in war

and actually saw combat
who have to deal with

a lot more shit
than I deal with,

but when it happens in
training, that, it's tainted.

You don't expect to give up
your life for this country

because you were given
faulty equipment.

[Dylan speaking muffled]

[man speaking muffled
by tape squeaking]

- [Man] Class, one,
six, one, five, unload!

- It's as simple as the
air crewman's creed.

My country has built me the
finest aircraft known to man.

- [Man] Troop.

- [Group Of Men] I'm a United
States Naval Air crewman.

My country has built me the
finest aircraft known to man.

They have entrusted me to use
it to keep our country free.

- I used to say that so loud.

I was the loudest
person to say it.

I was ate up, I loved it.

- [Man] Hooyah one time.

- [Crewmen] Hooyah!

To every man!

- [Man] Hooyah in group.

- [Crewmen] Hooyah!

- [Man] Hooyah in the crew.

- [Crewmen] Hooyah!

- [Narrator] 3 1/2 years
after the accident,

Boone decided to move closer
to family in California.

- I'm not gonna pretend that I
haven't had those dark nights

and struggles with PTSD.

Three volumes,
medical paperwork.

A lot of the time, I'd get a
surgery and just get Oxycontin

or Valium or Percocets.

And it was a concoction of
coping with physical ailments

and mental instability,

fueled by alcohol and
prescription drugs.

They take all the pain away.

Not just your physical pain,

but you don't think
about anything

and you really don't care.

[people chattering]

My lowest low.

I don't know if I even
wanna answer that,

'cause I'll sound fuckin' crazy.

Lowest low,

gun in hand.

Yeah, lowest low, gun
to hand, gun in hand.

Lowest low, gun in
hand, barrel to head.

But you know it's like you
kinda get to that point

and you never know if
you're actually gonna do it

or not, and then,

then you don't and you're kinda,

you're done with the idea.

[birds chirping]
[slow, somber music]

Sometimes it's just a bad day

and things continue
to roll downhill.

Sometimes it's really
hard to find the reason

for why things happen.

And sometimes it feels like

you're damn near
close to breaking.

[slow, somber music]

- I think all of the
platforms we've had

in the United States Marine
Corp, the legacy platforms,

had a bit of
readiness challenge,

a severe readiness challenge.

And it manifested
itself in about 2014.

I looked at the 53 as being
one that was more challenged

than some of the others.

What I didn't understand early
on is how to fix the problem.

Right now the world is a
pretty dangerous place,

and we got Marines floor
deployed at sea and at shore.

- [Narrator] Davis
had a dilemma.

He had Marines in Afghanistan
and the Middle East

dependent on the 53,
and he had concerns

about the condition
of the helicopters.

He ordered a study of his
53s in order to figure out

how to get the
fleet back on track.

[dramatic music]

The report found that less than
a quarter of the helicopters

were mission capable, far below
the Pentagon's requirements.

It recommended a
complete overhaul,

a reset of the 53 fleet.

- [Interviewer]
What took so long?

- I don't know.

I don't know, I just, I
can't answer that question.

I can only answer the
questions that I dealt with

when I got there.

- [Narrator] Seven months
after the report was complete,

the 53's troubling
legacy continued.

At a 53 squadron in Hawaii, so
few aircraft were available,

Marines considered the flight
schedule a running joke.

[slow, somber music]

But on a night in January, 2016,

12 Marines boarded
two helicopters

for a training exercise.

Tourists took in luaus.

Security cameras kept
watch on vacation homes.

One spotted the
choppers just offshore,

and captured the moment
they collided in midair.

All 12 Marines were
killed instantly.

[slow, solemn music]

The death toll on the
53E climbed to 128.

[slow, solemn music]

- That's terrible, and I think,
it's again, I'm heartbroken,

heartbroken that we
lose these fine Marines

in a mishap like this.

- [Narrator] The four
pilots had barely flown

in the months leading
up to the accident.

- [Interviewer] Were they
pushed to do something

they weren't ready to do?

- I don't wanna go into
that particular mishap,

but I think, yeah,
there's no reason

that those two airplanes
should've had a collision.

[slow, somber music]

- The fact that a
guy has a collision,

and you can obviously
blame it on pilot error,

doesn't really mean much if
the guy's not gettin' practice.

It's an easy way to
deflect the blame.

- [Man] Captain Kennedy,

Captain Brian Kennedy.

Captain Brian T. Kennedy.

- [Narrator] One of the
pilots, Brian Kennedy,

was one of Wes Van Dorn's best
friends at the Naval Academy.

- When we found out
that Brian had also died

in the helicopter crash, it's
devastating all over again.

- I went to Brian Kennedy's
wedding less than a year ago.

And then I went to the same town

and went to his funeral.

When is it going to be enough?

How many people have to die?

I'm appalled and I'm devastated

but there's a lack of surprise.

Something was gonna happen,
I knew it was gonna happen,

I just didn't know exactly
what it was going to look like.

- [Narrator] Kennedy's
name was inscribed

below that of his friend

at the Naval Academy's
Memorial Hall.

They are the only two
members of their class

to die in service,
not in battle,

but training in an
aged helicopter.

[slow, somber music]

[people chattering]

[laughing]

- If you join the military,
you inherently know

that some point in
time you might die

doing your job, just because
of what you've chosen to do.

But that does not
leave a blank allowance

for the Navy to kill you.

Not everybody that
died for this country

had to die for this country.

[deep, serious music]

- We're lookin' at
every single wire.

All the zip ties that were
in here is comin' off.

Every piece of tape you see,
is a repair we're making.

800 something gripes
just on this airframe.

This thing's a workhorse,

and it's gonna continue
to be a workhorse

until the Kilo hits the fleet.

[slow, somber music]

- It's been another tragic week
for U.S. military aviation.

Five service members have died,

and the accidents
are continuing.

[slow, somber music]

- The number of
accidents involving
maned military aircraft

between 2013 and
2017 spiked 40%, 40%.

[slow, somber music]

- I would reject
wave and crisis,

those are mishaps that occurred.

Each one is tragic and
we regret each one.

We'll look at 'em carefully.

I'm certainly not
prepared to say

that it's a wave of mishaps,
or some form of crisis.

No, I'm not prepared
to say that.

[slow, somber music]

- If it's not a wave
and it's not a crisis,

how do you explain it, General?

[slow, somber music]

- And I understand some
of you really great pilots

could use some new CH-53s,
is that a correct statement?

You wanna see some
new ones, huh?

[audience cheering]

[slow, somber music]

- Only an alert and
knowledgeable citizenry

can compel the proper meshing
of the huge industrial

and military
machinery of defense

with our peaceful
methods and goals,

so that security and liberty
may prosper together.

[slow, somber music]

[gentle, solemn music]

[somber orchestral music]