{"id":26746,"date":"2018-04-23T19:20:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T19:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/23\/editorial-rise-in-aviation-mishaps-signals-serious-readiness-manning-challenges\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:27:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:27:36","slug":"editorial-rise-in-aviation-mishaps-signals-serious-readiness-manning-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/editorials\/2018\/04\/23\/editorial-rise-in-aviation-mishaps-signals-serious-readiness-manning-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Rise in aviation mishaps signals serious readiness, manning challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rep. Mike Turner made a stunning comparison recently when he was talking to top military aviation<\/a> officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore U.S. military service members have died in aircraft mishaps<\/a> over the past year than have died while serving in Afghanistan,\u201d the Ohio Republican said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death of any military service member is a tragic loss. But there is something especially troubling about deaths that occur at home during training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent Military Times investigation<\/a> highlighted some of those fatalities, finding that at least 133 service members died in aviation mishaps<\/a> during the five-year period from 2013 through 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of those deaths occurred during training flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If an overseas operation targeting Islamic extremists had taken the lives of 133 troops over five years, it would be the central focus for the Pentagon\u2019s leaders and the American people they serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the problems in military aviation have emerged slowly over time and have commanded far less attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to blame Congress for failing to properly fund the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Capitol Hill\u2019s year-after-year habit of playing politics with military budgets set in motion the aviation crisis back in 2013 with the defense spending caps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s plenty of blame to spread around the Pentagon, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the week since the investigation was published, military personnel have told Military Times another factor behind the mishaps is the inability of the military to say no to additional missions \u2014 and the idea that the military is the solution for every global problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A close look at the data charting the rise in aviation mishaps over the past five years also reveals a critical fact:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is far worse in the Navy and Marine Corps than it is in the Air Force and Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\t