WASHINGTON — For the fifth time since 2017, the House Armed Services Committee met to examine the USS Fitzgerald and USS McCain collisions that led to the deaths of 17 sailors, and the underlying systemic readiness issues that were a major contributory cause of those tragic events.
"I think we need to do some soul searching and ensure that we have the right readiness at the right time," said Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia, 1st District).
The commander of Surface Forces Pacific said hard lessons were learned, and many procedural changes have been made.
"We only deploy ships that have the required manning, are fully certified and have the necessary material readiness in place," said VADM Richard Brown. "Although we have made significant progress that paves the way for future success, our efforts will not cease."
In 2018, a Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet and KC-130 Hercules collided in mid-air, killing six Marines.
Although completely unrelated, the three incidents had striking similarities involving inadequate training, equipment maintenance problems, and, poor leadership.
"We cannot change what has happened," said Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, Deputy Commandant for Aviation United States Marine Headquarters. "What we can do is use this tragedy to grow and change our organization, make those operations and all operations safe. Such initiatives will be the legacy of these Marines."
Lawmakers made clear, they'll be watching. Closely.
"First, we need to be absolutely certain that these things don't happen again," said Rep John Garamendi (D-California). "Preventable accidents, got to get on top of that."
The committee's chairman, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Connecticut) also weighed in. He said, "It is my sincere hope that through continued oversight and robust dialog with the services we can continue to eliminate these readiness difficulties, ensuring that our services members come home safely."
On Tuesday, the department of defense inspector general's office came out with a report that found "training deficiencies" during the maintenance and deployment cycles for nine of 12 guided-missile destroyers that it studied.