God and Country

Capt. Andrew Norris, the officer overseeing the hearings on the homicide charges against Coast Guard Lt Lance Leone, has recommended the charges be dropped.

In short, since the helicopter was being piloted by Lt. Sean Krueger, who was killed in the crash, Norris said there was no way to know what his reaction would have been to any inputs by Leone.  Leone’s failure or inability to influence the pilot to avoid the crash Read more…

The US Coast Guard pilot charged with negligent homicide for the 2010 crash of his helicopter has faced his Article 32 hearing.  Lt. Lance Leone was the sole survivor of the crash, which occurred when the helicopter hit a 1,900-foot unmarked wire span.  The lead investigator said the wires were improperly marked, but even so, the helicopter should never have been that low.

Capt. Timothy Heitsch…said that as an aviator, he did not believe the lines were marked in a way they could have been seen…

The helicopter hit Read more…

In a somewhat unusual turn of events, the co-pilot (and lone survivor) of a 2010 Coast Guard helicopter crash has been charged with two counts of negligent homicide and other UCMJ violations.

[Lt. Lance] Leone was one of two pilots flying the MH-60 Jayhawk, which crashed off La Push. The crash killed all three other passengers on board.

In addition to the negligent homicide charges, Leone faces two counts of dereliction of duty and destruction of government property, Kip Wadlow, a Coast Guard spokesman, said.

The helicopter flew into power lines Read more…

If you ditch your plane 13 miles short of the Hawaiian Big Island, does the Coast Guard rescue swimmer still give you a lei?

Charles Mellor was reportedly ferrying a twin-engine Cessna 310 to Hawaii; he was 500 miles out when he contacted the FAA and told them he wasn’t going to make it.

The man was flying for delivery a Cessna 310 twin-engine aircraft from Monterey, California, to Hilo when he radioed federal aviation authorities that he was 500 miles out and low on fuel, Read more…

The US Coast Guard reported that a Marine F/A-18 flying out of Miramar went down late Wednesday night.  The two crew members ejected and spent four hours in the (relatively chilly) Pacific waters, finally being rescued by Coast Guard assets at around 0230.

After notification of the downed aircraft at 10:15 p.m., the Coast Guard launched assets to begin the rescue mission…The Coast Guard MH-60 Jahawk’s…aircrew maneuvered into position, and the rescue swimmer deployed to recover the Marines, who were hoisted into the helicopter and flown to a hospital.

The rescue effort was substantial:

The Coast Guard Cutter Edisto…, the Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau…, a C-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Sacramento — the first asset on the scene — and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Sector San Diego responded.

The names of the crew were not released.  As is usual practice, the military will investigate and report on the mishap in the coming months.

Ryan Hawn is a Coast Guard Academy graduate and rescue helicopter pilot currently stationed in the San Francisco Bay area.  He also attends the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary through its online eCampus program.

Within the military environment, such distance learning programs are fairly common, especially since Masters Degrees are frequently required for promotion (though the military does not guarantee it will give you time to get that degree).  In general, like the undergraduate degree for pilots, the military is less concerned with the subject of a graduate degree and more concerned with the fact that an officer has one.

In Hawn’s case, he is able to further his own Christian education, and potentially his career, while at the same time continuing in his professional service every day.

First Lady Michelle Obama christened the US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton last Friday.  There was a slight groan from the crowd when the first swing failed to break the bottle; the second was successful.  Maritime tradition considers the failure of the bottle to break on christening “bad luck.”  In one recent example, the Queen Victoria was reported to be a victim of the “Camilla curse” when a virus broke out on the cruise ship’s maiden voyage after the Duchess of Cornwall failed to break the bottle on the ship’s christening.

Maritime superstition notwithstanding, of course, it is laudable the First Lady would take the time to support the Coast Guard and the longstanding tradition of christening sea-going vessels.

Perhaps someday such celebrations will be overcome by events.  After all, ship christening has a long and historied spiritual connection, and even the term christening is ripe with religious connotation.  (See the US Navy’s official history on ship christening.)  Those who want to strip any vestige of religious association from the US military will undoubtedly claim the blessing or christening of military equipment violates the Constitution and endangers American servicemembers fighting in our nation’s wars.  Such a critique would be ridiculous, of course, but that hasn’t stopped similar ones made to date.