Sarah Lister was right all along and should be re-instated in her position, and SHE SHOULD BE APOLOGIZED TO BY ALL THE IDIOT mARINE cORPS WORSHIPPERS.

GUESS WHO HAS THE HIGHEST ACCIDENT/FATALITY RATE IN THE U.S. MILITARY?

UNDER-SUPERVISED mARINES TURN TRUCK OVER AND BURN-TO-DEATH--ONE A WOMAN---IN TRAINING
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Thursday, January 29, 1998 Section: METRO
The Associated Press

A five-ton truck crashed, overturned and caught fire during night training exercises, killing the two marines inside.

Pfc. Brenda L. Frederick of Olean, N.Y., and Pvt. Michael P. Harrington of North Bend, Ore., died in the crash Tuesday, fort officials said.

Frederick and Harrington were motor vehicle operator students assigned to the marine corps detachment and were conducting joint training with the 58^th Transportation Battalion.

They were participating in night convoy training on an unpaved road near the fort's airfield when the truck overturned and caught fire.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

NARCISSIST mARINE AVIATORS SLAUGHTER CABLE CAR FULL OF CIVILIAN TOURISTS
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09:15 PM ET 02/05/98

FOCUS-Italy, U.S. in conflict over cablecar deaths

By Gideon Long
ROME, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Italy's spat with the U.S. military looked set to worsen after both sides gave conflicting accounts of why an American jet was flying close enough to a cablecar to slash its wires, sending 20 people plunging to their deaths. And in a new twist to a story which has united Italy in anger and indignation, local media in the Dolomite mountains reported the warplane's ``black box'' flight recorder had disappeared after the pilot landed at the U.S. airbase at Aviano.

The Italian defence ministry said on Thursday the surveillance plane had veered off course by 10 km (six miles) and should not have been flying below 2,000 feet (660 metres). But, at Aviano, 150 km (90 miles) from Cavalese where the accident occurred, U.S Brigadier-General Guy Vanderlinden said a seven-man investigating team had yet to find any indication the plane had strayed from its flight path.

`The preliminary information we have indicates he (the pilot) was over the route,'' Vanderlinden told reporters. ``The pilot was authorised to fly on a low-level mission...I think the altitude of the aircraft is the central issue to be discovered by the investigating team,'' he said. ``I don't have the information that Minister Andreatta has.''

That prompted a tetchy response from Andreatta.

The claims and counter-claims appeared set to continue on Friday, when Italian magistrates and the Marines, conducting parallel investigations, were due to probe further in to one of the worst cablecar disasters on record. Eight Germans, five Belgians, three Italians, a Polish mother and teenage son, a Dutch woman and an Austrian were killed in the accident.

``Italy-U.S. -- Two truths on the slaughter'' read the headline in an early edition of widely-read newspaper Corriere della Sera. ``Passing the Buck'' was the blunt banner headline on the leftist paper Manifesto, which ran with calls from Refoundation Communist party leader Fausto Bertinotti for the immediate closure of U.S. bases in Italy. And while the national media chronicled the stand-off between Italy and the Marines, local newspapers focused on comments by one of the investigators that evidence may have been removed from the plane after it landed.

``The black box has disappeared,'' said a headline in regional newspaper Il Giorno. ``The black box has been stolen,'' echoed the Secolo XX paper. Magistrate Francantonio Granero, one of the magistrates leading the Italian investigation into the accident, said he believed something had been removed from the plane after it landed at Aviano on Tuesday afternoon.

``I don't know exactly what it was but the fact needs to be clarified,'' he told reporters in Cavalese, where mourners climbed the mountainside to lay wreaths by the mangled debris of the cablecar.``If not, the reciprocal agreement on collaboration reached today with the U.S. investigators is thrown into doubt.'' Asked whether the U.S. military at Aviano had co-operated with the Italian inquiry, Granero said: ``To be honest, so far we've done it all on our own.'' REUTERS@

THE SPIN DOCTORS AT WORK: "THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS....." HIDE MC SCREW-UP AMONGST OTHER SERVICE CRASHES TO OBSCURE THE FACT THE MC ERRED!...and 20 people died horribly.....
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By Robert Burns, Associated Press Writer
Friday, February 6, 1998; 2:24 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An average of 31 civilians are killed each year in U.S. military accidents worldwide, but a single incident as deadly as the marine Corps aircraft disaster in Italy this week is rare, statistics show.

[Editor's note: "Pooh-Pooh, so its o.k.we'll excuse this one away to preserve our sacred cow"--take a look at the MC accident rate chart above!]

The military's overall air safety record has improved in recent years. Still, civilians sometimes are victims of military road accidents and spectacular air crashes. [Editor's note: the MC accident rate hasn't improved! Don't lump it with the other services to hide its ineptitude]

The marines on Thursday began their investigation of Tuesday's accident in the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy. An EA-6B electronic warfare plane severed a ski gondola cable about 300 feet off the ground, sending 20 skiers to their deaths.

They were the first civilian deaths involving Marine Corps aviation in the past 10 years, according to Navy statistics released at the Pentagon on Thursday.

[Editor's note: Goodie for them! They get a merit badge! NOT!]

For the U.S. military overall, there were 13 civilians killed in military accidents worldwide in 1997, and in 1994 there were 10 the lowest for any year in this decade.

In October 1992 a Kentucky Air National Guard C-130 transport plane slammed into a motel and restaurant in Evansville, Ind. Five crew members and 11 people on the ground were killed.

One of the worst year was 1996. In April 1996 an Air Force jet carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown crashed into a mountain in Croatia, killing all 35 aboard, including 28 civilians and the seven-person Air Force crew. Also that year an Air Force U-2 spy plane crashed into a parking lot in Oroville, Calif., killing the pilot and a woman in the lot.

Also in 1996 an F-16 fighter that had fled Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., to avoid Hurricane Bertha crashed into a house in Pensacola, Fla., killing a 4-year-old boy.

[Editor's note: none of these aircraft were being taken for a hotdog joy ride to videotape the countryside like the marine Prowler was]

NOT A DAY PASSES AND MR. BURNS IS WRITING ABOUT ANOTHER mARINE AIR CRASH LEAVING ONE DEAD
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02/06/1998 16:59 EST

U.S. Jets Collide in Persian Gulf

By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writer

F/A-18 Hornet similar to the ones involved in Friday's mid-air collision

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two U.S. marine corps fighter jets collided over the Persian Gulf today. Officials said both pilots were recovered from the water, but one died.

The jets were headed toward Iraq on a routine patrol of the zone over southern Iraq in which no Iraqi aircraft are permitted to fly, defense officials said.

The names of the pilots of the single-seat F/A-18 fighter jets were being withheld until their relatives were notified of the accident.

It was not immediately clear whether the pilot died in the collision or after being recovered from the water. The other pilot was in good condition, according to a statement issued by the public affairs office of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command at 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

One pilot was flown to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington after the crash and the other to the British carrier HMS Invincible, officials said.

Both planes took off from the George Washington, which is among three U.S. aircraft carriers in the gulf as President Clinton contemplates using force against Iraq to force compliance with U.N. weapons inspections. Navy and U.S. Air Force planes based in Saudi Arabia regularly patrol the skies over southern Iraq to enforce a ``no fly'' zone that was imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.

The crash occurred about 80 miles east of Kuwait City, the Navy said.

There was no immediate explanation for the collision. [Editor's note: how about incompetence?]

The two planes are part of VMFA 251, a fighter squadron based at Beaufort, S.C..

The single-seat F-A-18C, nicknamed the Hornet, is flown by both the Navy and marine corps. It can perform either air-to-air combat or ground attack missions. It is made by McDonnell Douglas

ASSHOLE mARINE PILOT HIDES HIS CRIME BY GRABBING THE FLIGHT RECORDER
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02/06/1998 09:18 EST

US: Jet in Italy Was Flying Too Low

By VANIA GRANDI, Associated Press Writer

CAVALESE, Italy (AP) -- The U.S. military said today that the marine jet that brought down a cable car full of skiers was flying ``well below'' the approved altitude. An Italian prosecutor said the military had handed over a record of flight data.

Four days after 20 people plunged to their deaths in the Dolomites, friction built between Italian and U.S. authorities over the plane's course, altitude and so-called ``black box.''

The U.S. military has said the plane carried no voice or flight data recorder, and the precise nature of the device that allegedly was handed over to Italian investigators was not immediately clear.

Francantino Granero, the Italian prosecutor investigating the accident, said a U.S. technician had told authorities that a recording device had been removed from the plane.

Granero said he was told the pilot removed the device when he returned to base on Tuesday after the fatal flight. But the Italian prosecutor said he was told that some of the data might be missing because the pilot removed it before turning off an electrical circuit.

Authorities at the plane's base at Aviano issued a statement today saying the marine EA-6B Prowler was ``well below the approved minium altitude'' when it severed the cable at the ski area near Trento, about 90 miles east of Milan.

It also said the ski lift was within the plane's flight path, a corridor 10 nautical miles wide.

The Aviano statement did not mention the recording device, although earlier today base spokeswoman Capt. Tracy O'Grady-Walsh specifically denied that the aircraft had either a flight data or voice recorder.

A key point of dispute has been whether the pilot was flying lower than the 500-feet minimum.

"There would not have been any danger had the plane kept to the rules," Italian Defense Minister Beniamino Andreatta told a special joint session of Parliament on Thursday. "What happened is incomprehensible."

Andreatta said the plane flew under the cable and that it was nearly six miles off its assigned route. His claim was backed by Italy's top Air Force official.

On Thursday, U.S. marine Brig. Gen. Guy Vanderlinden, the senior-ranking marine officer in the region, conceded the pilot was flying the route for the first time. But he contradicted Italian assertions that the pilot had veered off course.

"The preliminary information we have indicates he was over the route," Vanderlinden said during a news conference at Aviano.

Italian prosecutors and a seven-member marine team, which arrived early Thursday in Aviano from Cherry Point, N.C., are conducting separate investigations.

Aviano said Thursday that the pilot, Capt. Richard Ashby, 30, of Mission Viejo, Calif. had over 750 hours flying time on that type of aircraft.

The pilot was suspended as per routine practice during an inquiry.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen announced the United States will provide $100,000 to the victims' families to help cover burial costs

NOTE mARINES RAPE 12 YEAR-OLD GIRL, GET U.S. KICKED OUT OF OKINAWA BUT ARE TERMED "SERVICEMEN"
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11:38 PM ET 02/05/98

Okinawa Governor Ota rejects U.S. heliport project

TOKYO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Masahide Ota, governor of Japan's southern island prefecture of Okinawa, formally announced on Friday he was opposed to the construction of a U.S. offshore heliport. ``Okinawa has decided not to accept the government's proposal,'' Ota told a news conference.

Tokyo wants to build the offshore heliport in a remote location to replace a U.S. air station that is located in an urban part of the island as part of a deal hammered out with Washington to reduce the American military presence in Okinawa.

But last December, residents of Nago, the city near which the offshore heliport was to be located, voted overwhelmingly against the heliport in a non-binding referendum. Nago mayor Tetsuya Higa resigned after expressing support for the project. The mayoral election to replace Higa will take place on Sunday.

Ota cited the public's opposition to the project, as seen in the outcome of the referendum, as well as the prefecture's policy to pursue a ``base-free, pacifist prefecture'' as his reasons for rejecting the heliport plan. Kyodo news agency quoted government spokesman Kanezo Muraoka as saying Ota had conveyed his decision to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Friday morning, apologising for his decision.

Okinawa, which accounts less than one percent of Japan's land mass, is home to 75 percent of U.S. military bases in Japan. Okinawa residents' discontent over U.S. military presence flared in 1995 when three U.S. servicemen raped a 12-year-old schoolgirl. [Editor's note: 2 marines and a Sailor: don't lump other services to these crimes when its been primarily marines who have alienated the Okinawan population over the years]

REPORT: mARINES AND HELICOPTERS: A DEADLY MIX
______________________________________________
By The Associated Press

HAMILTON, Ga. -- An officer from Fall River was one of two men killed in a marine corps helicopter crash in Georgia, the military reported.

Lt. Col. Allen E. Oliver, 41, died in the crash near a Boy Scout camp, authorities at New River marine corps Air Station in Jacksonville, N.C., said in a statement. A second man, Capt. Robert E. Edwards, 32, of Denville, N.J., also was killed. Authorities did not say why the helicopter was 450 miles from its home base. They said the marine corps is conducting an investigation. [Editor's note: another joy ride?]

Rescue workers worked for more than five hours Friday to recover the bodies, which were finally removed at 4 p.m. from a heavily wooded hillside owned by Mead Paper Co. in Harris County.

Frank Smith, a ranger at the Callaway-McKenzie Boy Scout camp, was first on the scene. "I heard a helicopter coming in very low. I heard a crash, then there was a deadly silence," he said.He said it didn't take him long to find the downed helicopter. He said it carried no rockets or ammunition.

"You don't get used to what you see, but it comes with the job," said Jose Morales, emergency management director for Harris County and an Army combat veteran. "I spent time in Vietnam; it's not much different."

Also Friday afternoon, a convoy of Humvees carried military police across a wooden bridge to secure the sealed-off area as investigators searched for the cause of the crash. The military borrowed Harris County's "jaws of life" for their work, according to the sheriff's department. The crash site, 75 miles southwest of Atlanta, is near a large stone-and-pine lodge where scouts from 17 counties in Georgia and Alabama gather. No children were at the 680-acre camp Friday. [Editor's note: Thank God.]

DO mARINES WORK MIRACLES WITH OUR SOUTHWEST?, NOT!
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18-Year Old Texan, Herding Goats, Killed by U.S. marine corps Anti-Drug Patrol; Criminal Investigation of Shooting Underway

July 1997

On May 20, eighteen-year-old high school student Esequiel Hernandez Jr. was shot and killed near his house by the leader of a U.S. marine corps patrol on an anti-drug operation near the U.S.-Mexico border in Redford, Texas. Hernandez was tending goats about a mile from his home when the shooting occurred. The incident is the first time that military forces on anti-drug duty have shot and killed a U.S. citizen. After the incident, border patrol activities by the military were suspended (Thaddeus Herrick, "marine on anti-drug duty shoots, kills student," Houston Chronicle, May 22, 1997, p. 37A; "Border Drug Patrols Are Halted After Killing," New York Times, July 11, 1997, p. A17).

MARINES SAY TEENAGER SHOT AT THEM, BUT AUTOPSY RESULTS DON'T MATCH STORY [Editor: they're lying]

Military officials claim Hernandez inexplicably fired his antique .22-caliber rifle twice at four marines, and was preparing to shoot a third time when he was fatally shot in the side with an M-16 combat rifle. The soldier named in the shooting is Cpl. Clemente Banuelos. The marine patrol was on loan to the Border Patrol from Camp Pendleton (CA), and was participating in operations under Joint Task Force-6, which runs military anti-narcotics efforts on the Border. By law, military personnel involved in domestic law enforcement are not allowed to search, seize, arrest or confront a suspect. Military involvement is strictly limited to activities such as surveillance and intelligence (10 USCA Sec. 375). Soldiers are allowed to return fire in self-defense. [Editor: how about if they just feel the urge?]

Neighbors said Hernandez used his rifle to ward off coyotes, and for target practice, and suggest that is what the teenager thought he was doing if he fired any shots. "Personally, I don't think this kid ever saw them, by the indication my Rangers are telling me," said Captain Barry Caver, spokesman for the Texas Rangers, the state law enforcement agency that is investigating the killing. The marines were heavily camouflaged, and were trained to conceal themselves so as not to be detected. The shooting appears to have taken place from a distance of 375 to 600 feet (James Pinkerton, "Ranger says marines' account doesn't `exactly jibe,'" Houston Chronicle, May 24, 1997, p. 18A).

Family and neighbors say Hernandez was law-abiding and respectful and would never have knowingly shot at people, much less Soldiers. Officials found no evidence that the teenager was involved in illegal activities, and an autopsy showed that he did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system. Before he was killed, Hernandez was studying for his drivers license, and dreamed of going to college, working as a wildlife ranger, or possibly joining the marines. [Editor: this is too much! I guess his enlistment was rejected!]

An autopsy contradicted statements that the marines had acted in self-defense. "The angle [of Hernandez's bullet wound] is consistent with him pointing away from the marines. He would have been shooting away," said James Jepson, first assistant district attorney in Fort Stockton. Investigators say they asked the marines involved in the incident to remain in Texas so they could reenact the shooting at the site, but they were sent back to Camp Pendleton after four days. Tests on Hernandez's rifle are incomplete, and investigators have not been able to corroborate that the teenager fired two shots in the incident. Neighbors report only hearing one shot (Thaddeus Herrick, "Doubts raised in border case," Houston Chronicle, June 11, 1997, p. 1A). [Editor: the shot that killed him]

Apparently, investigators said, the marines followed Hernandez from "bush to bush" for 20 minutes after he fired his .22 caliber rifle. At a news conference two days after the incident, marine corps Col. Thomas Kelly, deputy commander of Joint Task Force-6, said only that the marines "took immediate defensive posture" and tried to "maintain visual observation." Caver said the marines may have violated military policy when they followed Hernandez. "My understanding is that this is totally against the rules of engagement," said Caver, adding, "I'm not sure what their intent was" (Thaddeus Harrick, "More questions in border shooting," Houston Chronicle, June 21, 1997, p. 1A).

REPORT: mARINES FAILED TO GIVE FIRST AID OR CALL FOR MEDICAL HELP; HERNANDEZ BLED TO DEATH

The investigation has revealed that the marines failed to administer first aid or call for emergency medical help for Hernandez. Hernandez suffered massive internal bleeding while the marines checked his pulse and called the Border Patrol. The marines reported a "man down" at 6:27 p.m., but the call for a helicopter did not go out until 6:49 p.m. "Apparently the marines did not treat him until the responding Border Patrol agents got there and called for an ambulance," said Sergeant David Duncan, head of the investigation of the shooting. The 4-man marine team included a member trained as an emergency medic. An autopsy later revealed that Hernandez did not die instantly, but bled to death (Staff and Wire Reports, "Teen shot by marine at border bled to death, autopsy finds," Houston Chronicle, June 24, 1997, p. 15A; Eduardo Montes, "Autopsy shows how marine fire killed teen," Austin American-Statesman, June 24, 1997, p. B3). [Semper Fi, assholes!]

CRIMINAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATIONS PURSUED

Cpl. Banuelos and the three other marines will be subject to a grand jury investigation in July, said Presidio County prosecutor Albert Valadez. "This is not government soil, and we're not on a military base," Valadez said. "We're going to act as we would in any case involving a shooting" (Douglas Holt, "marine who killed herder faces inquiry," Dallas Morning News, May 24, 1997).

On June 24, Texas Rangers served Brigadier General James Lovelace, commanding officer of Joint Task Force-6, with a subpoena, asking him to provide a list of military reports, notes, witness statements and communications logs related to the shooting. A military lawyer told the Rangers that federal law may prohibit the military from turning over all of the documents requested. Service of the subpoenas, which were signed on June 5, apparently was delayed by miscommunications and unreturned phone calls, according to the Dallas Morning News (Douglas Holt, "Subpoena served in shooting," Dallas Morning News, June 25, 1997).

The U.S. Attorney's office is expected to begin a civil rights investigation into the incident. The U.S. Attorney's office in El Paso has presented the U.S. Department of Justice with the names of several defense lawyers if they are needed to defend the marines.

FAMILY, COMMUNITY AND ADVOCATES RESPOND

Hernandez's family is considering a lawsuit against the government, and the towns of Redford and Presidio are exploring the possibility of legal action to demilitarize their communities. "We were invaded, and one of our sons was slaughtered," said the Rev. Mel La Follette, a retired Episcopal priest in Redford who is helping residents prepare a class-action suit. La Follette continued, "The whole community has been violated." Military personnel must have permission from landowners before conducting operations on their property. But Hernandez was shot on the property of Albert Carrasco, who said he never authorized the exercises.

"The whole community has been violated."

-- Rev. Mel La Follette, retired Episcopal priest in Redford

The incident has focused the debate over the "militarization" of anti-drug efforts, which opponents contend leads to violence and violations of human rights. "Whether or not the soldiers in the Redford case followed the rules of engagement or broke the law, the problem is the policy that put them there in the first place," said Timothy J. Dunn, a University of Texas scholar and author of The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978-1992. For more information on the "militarization" of anti-drug efforts, see article in this issue of NewsBriefs.

At the Federal Building in El Paso, the Border Rights Coalition and other concerned Americans protested the military presence in their community. On June 20-22, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) held "National Days of Reflection On the Militarization of the Mexico-U.S. Border" as a time of study, dialogue and mourning of the Redford incident. Kevin Zeese, President of Common Sense for Drug Policy, spoke at the El Paso meeting and went to Redford to meet the family and neighbors of Hernandez. AFSC arranged meetings for Redford residents with top federal officials, including "drug czar" McCaffrey, and the news media in Washington, DC on July 15-17.

U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes (D-El Paso), who served as chief of the Border Patrol in El Paso, has urged Congress to replace the military presence on the border with more Border Patrol agents. The White House is calling for an increase in the number of Border Patrol Agents over the next 10 years from 6,200 to 20,000. However, regardless of the number of Border Patrol agents, many members of Congress feel that using the military is necessary to combat sophisticated and well-armed drug traffickers. (The shooting took place in the district of Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX).) [Editor: answer is don't use the USMC]

Comprehensive articles referred to for this story include: Thaddeus Herrick, "Borderline Shootings," Houston Chronicle, June 22, 1997, p. 1A; William Branigin, "Questions on Military Role Fighting Drugs Ricochet From a Deadly Shot," Washington Post, June 22, 1997, p. A3; Jesse Katz, "A Good Shepard's Death by the Military," Los Angeles Times (Washington Edition), June 26, 1997, p. A9. [Editor: should read: Death by the marine corps]