Air Accidents Killed More U.S. Troops Than Combat In Afghanistan Over The Past Year

via Forbes.

Last week, the U.S. military experienced three air crashes in the space of two days. On April 3, the U.S. Marine Corps lost a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in the U.S. as well as an AV-8B Harrier jet in Djibouti. Four Marines were killed in the CH-53E crash while the pilot of the AV-8B managed to eject and was reported to be in a stable condition in Camp Lemonnier's medical facility. Those incidents were swiftly followed by the crash of an F-16 in Nevada operated by The Thunderbirds, the U.S. Air Force's flight demonstration team. Unfortunately, the pilot died in the crash.

The spate of deadly accidents raises questions about whether U.S. military airpower is in the midst of a crisis. Since the beginning of March alone, 14 service members have been killed in crashes. The deadliest of those incidents occurred when an Air Force HH-60 helicopter collided with power lines in western Iraq, killing seven airmen. Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Mac Thornberry, released a statement on Saturday saying that the "readiness of the military is at crisis point". When asked about the situation in a recent Pentagon briefing, however, Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said that he is not prepared to characterize the crashes as evidence of a "wave" or "crisis", saying that each incident will be investigated.

Story here. 

There is a graphic posted with this story but its from "Task and Purpose" blog and I'll never link to them.  I despise that group with every fiber of my being.

Having said that this is stunning.

More troops are killed in air crashes than in combat?

Our house is broken.

It's past time to take a beat, set a course (realistic course this time) and move out with confidence that the plan is solid instead of being laced with rainbows and unicorns.

Confidence ain't high that will happen though.

I don't know when it happened but for some reason the Pentagon has fallen in love with increased operations tempo (artificially caused) and deployments that make no sense.

That means more air crashes are almost certain.