Guest Commentary from Susan Flanigan and Michael McDowell (Baltimore Sun, 1/2/23) (re-printed with authors’ permission):
Each month, young Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen are killed when their armored vehicles flip over. Those who survive can face amputations, traumatic brain injuries and a tough future. Today, more young people, some in their teens, die in training than in combat.
Nearly all these lethal training fiascoes — outrageously labeled “mishaps” by military bureaucrats — are preventable.
Our son, 1st. Lt. Hugh Conor McDowell, of Chestertown, Maryland, a Marine troop commander, was crushed to death at the age of 24, when his 13-ton Light Armored Vehicle rolled over, plunging into a concealed crevasse at Camp Pendleton, off the Southern California coast.
Conor, a leader loved by his young men, pushed his gunner, in the turret beside his, to safety. But our only child was too late to save himself. He died in “the line-of-duty,” exonerated of any responsibility for this tragedy.
Five historic laws have now passed through the Senate and House to mark this Maryland Marine’s legacy. Among them is the establishment for the first time of safety councils for the U.S. Army and Marine corps, focused on deaths and horrific injuries in “mishaps.” The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defense is now compelled to report all such deaths to Congress and to identify precisely why these losses happened and how they could have been prevented.
In addition, woefully neglected range safety, like at Pendleton, has been beefed up. Young men and women now have to be clearly certified to drive only specific vehicles; training hours and days have sharply increased; poor and low maintenance budgets for aging war machines have been augmented; and funds for spare parts have significantly enlarged.
The vast majority of Humvees — the most common armored war wagons apt to roll over — do not even have anti-lock brakes (ABS) or electronic stability control (ESC), which have been on our domestic cars for decades now and lower the chance of rollovers.
Congress has recently added hundreds of millions of dollars in ABS/ESC “kits” to make worn-out Humvees less likely to roll, and more able to stop quickly, when these older “vics” are driven too fast and roll when they hit even a moderate bump on a tarmac road, not just during rough off-road maneuvers.
As Conor’s parents, we fought for these changes with the crucial help of two key members of Congress from our state: Sen. Chris Van Hollen and outgoing Rep. Anthony Brown, the former vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee who this month becomes Maryland’s next attorney general.
Sen. Van Hollen and Rep. Brown met with us, and our son’s fiancee, Kathleen Bourque, a proud Loyola Maryland graduate, just days after we brought our beloved Conor home, aboard an “angel flight,” and a moving public ceremony upon the plane’s arrival at BWI airport.
The three of us had done some initial quick Googling on “rollovers” and were stunned to see rollover deaths were occurring every month in different vehicles at bases across the USA. We identified a consistent systemic pattern of monthly rollover deaths stretching back years, but no one at the Pentagon had acted to prevent this chilling regular trend.
We saw immediately that both Maryland members of Congress were workhorses, not show ponies like too many politicians. They told us that we needed a Government Accountability Office (GAO) deep-dive inquiry and report.
There was no guarantee of getting that — the GAO is proudly independent of Congress — but Van Hollen’s and Brown’s guidance and focus helped us convince the GAO experts to do exactly that.
Conor was killed in broad daylight on the morning of May 9, 2019, and passing these landmark safety reform laws, in just 3.5 years, is warp speed by congressional standards. And yet there is more to do.
The “1st Lt. Hugh Conor McDowell Safety in Armed Forces Equipment Act” went from the House to the Senate in the summer of this year, and was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed by President Biden on Friday, Dec. 23.
So, a few committed citizens can indeed bring about significant policy change using our democratic process. It takes time, and very smart expert staff, to draft such complicated legislation.
It also requires bipartisan support and the fervent backing of Gold Star families, especially mothers of the slain, to reach out to their House and Senate Members both Democrat and Republican, and be heard.
Our country is in an all too often cynical mood. But this time Congress worked in harmony. For the future of our democracy, we need senators and representatives working together for our common good. Sen. Van Hollen and Rep. Brown successfully reached across the aisle.
Without their commitment to see this through, more young men and women, some in their teens, will die in training.
We can be proud of our Maryland Democratic congressional delegation for acting quickly and being with us for the long haul.
The state of the country may be divided, but there is hope. We saw it, we acted on it. God bless America and our young women and men in the armed forces.
Susan M. Flanigan, a Baltimore native, is the mother of Hugh Conor McDowell. His father, Michael H.C. McDowell, is a fellow of the New America think tank in Washington, D.C. (Twitter: @mhcmcdowell). They make their home in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore.