![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635917588275378126-congress-defense-spen-weigjpg.jpg\")
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas speaks during a March 18, 2015, hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Molly Riley\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thornberry said he has been alarmed by a spike in fatal aircraft accidents for both the Army and Marine Corps. In September, Marine aviation deaths reached a five-year high. Then two CH-53E Super Stallions crashed in January, killing 12 Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While he has not been briefed on the investigation into the CH-53E crash, Thornberry said the recent trend of crashes show that “something is drastically going wrong.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n “Lives are exactly what’s at stake here,” he said. \u00a0“It’s not just a matter of budget numbers or political leverage. \u00a0When they don’t get the training; when the aircraft are not maintained, it is lives. That’s why I feel strongly about it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he talks to service members about how budget cuts have affected their lives, Thornberry can hear their frustration, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I talk to pilots who don’t have the aircraft they need when they’re about to deploy in a few weeks,” he said. “I talked to mechanics about working seven days a week, long hours, never seeing their kids and they feel like they’re deployed overseas when they’re right here at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’ve talked to a top pilot for one of the services who’s leaving the service \u2014 loves what he does \u2014 but he doesn’t think the aircraft he flies are safe anymore and he’s got two young kids at home.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cumulative effects of budget cuts and non-stop deployments are taking a heavy toll on service members, Thornberry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We’ve been asking more and more of these folks and I’m afraid we’re reaching the breaking point,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. strategy in battling the Islamic State is not to achieve victory, but\u00a0to\u00a0\u201cjust avoid disaster,\u201d the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":104106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10,15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1240],"class_list":["post-117488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"M4XMQCDGMBHAJG2GL4G7RCNOQQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2016\/05\/19\/weak-u-s-strategy-is-making-isis-stronger-congressman-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n