Two fatal military crashes raise serious questions

What happened?

We have had two military crashes between June 17 and July 10, causing the deaths of 23 servicemen. The 9,000-ton destroyer Fitzgerald was rammed by a 29,000- ton Japanese freighter in the middle of the night. Neither ship tried to avoid the collision. Seven men on the Fitzgerald were killed. The Japanese freighter took almost a half-hour to start the maneuver to turn the 1,000-foot ship around after the crash; 116 men on the Fitzgerald were asleep during the collision.

The second incident happened on July 10, which involved a KC-130 crashing over the State of Mississippi at 4:10 p.m., killing 16 men. Witnesses on the ground spotted the plane spiraling toward the ground and bodies falling to their deaths. Some heard an explosion prior to the crash. The crash scene laid over bean fields strewn more than two miles long.

I have a very hard time digesting these crashes. Somebody is to blame for these horrific scenes. There is one thing to die in combat and another thing to die because someone screwed up. How long will the investigation take before the deceased family members know the truth? These two crashes have taken up less print in our newspapers and less verbiage on TV and radio than President Trump’s son and some Russian.

Please pray for the families, which include many children, some of whom haven’t even been born yet, of these men who died serving our great nation.

This story was originally published July 29, 2017 at 1:58 PM with the headline "Two fatal military crashes raise serious questions."