{"id":11055,"date":"2016-01-26T08:42:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T14:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=11055"},"modified":"2016-01-26T08:42:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T14:42:58","slug":"budget-cuts-may-be-the-reason-for-spike-in-military-helo-crash-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/26\/budget-cuts-may-be-the-reason-for-spike-in-military-helo-crash-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Cuts May be the Reason for Spike in Military Helo Crash Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Totally Unacceptable and Stupid. Our Troops should have EVERYTHING they need to train Safely and Efficiently. 1 Death during training is a tragedy, but 30 deaths is a CRISIS. Let’s get our heads out of asses, shall we? -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Philippines<\/p>\n

A significant increase in the number of deaths in military helicopter crashes over the last year has led Marine commanders to probe whether budget cuts are endangering troops with their effects on maintenance and training.<\/p>\n

Twelve helicopter crashes killed 30 service members last year, a death toll that was three times that which resulted from helicopter crashes in 2014. The deaths have largely occurred during training missions at home stations.<\/p>\n

Stars and Stripes<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>reported:<\/p>\n

\n

Cuts by Congress and the White House to funds used by the Marines and other services to pay for flight time and helicopter repairs means that there may not be enough air-worthy aircraft available for nondeployed units to train safely.\u00a0For the Marines, for example, almost one-fifth of their helicopters aren\u2019t available due to maintenance requirements.\u00a0In addition, because nondeploying units spend less time in the air, their training opportunities become even more dangerous, former Marine Corps and Navy pilots say.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Marine Corps commandant\u00a0Gen. Robert Neller and deputy Marine commandant for aviation\u00a0Lt. Gen. Jon Davis are reportedly looking into what\u00a0has caused the spike\u00a0in helicopter crashes.<\/p>\n

Retired Cmdr. Chris Harmer told\u00a0Stars and Stripes<\/em>\u00a0that there is a direct correlation between the reduced flight time and the increased number of deaths from helicopter crashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt whatsoever that reduced flying hours equal increased [accidents] and fatalities,\u201d Harmer said. He further stated that the kind of flying for which helicopters units undergo training \u201cis highly calibrated and coordinated. If you lose currency it is extremely difficult and dangerous to regain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military has endured an approximately 30 percent cut in funding for operations and maintenance between fiscal years 2012 and 2016, according to an estimate from the\u00a0American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n

Service members have continued to lose their lives in helicopters crashes into 2016. Earlier this month, two\u00a0CH-53 helicopters, each carrying six Marines, crashed<\/a> off the coast of Hawaii during a nighttime training mission. After a five-day search effort, the Marine Corps changed<\/a> the status of the missing service members to deceased.<\/p>\n

Both aircraft belonged to the\u00a01st Marine Aircraft Wing from Marine Corps Base Hawaii.<\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at Free Beacon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Totally Unacceptable and Stupid. Our Troops should have EVERYTHING they need to train Safely and Efficiently. 1 Death during training is a tragedy, but 30 deaths is a CRISIS. Let’s get our heads out of asses, shall we? -SF A significant increase in the number of deaths in military helicopter crashes over the last year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[74,2086,2820,1911],"tags":[4043,4044,3329],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}