Calls for more oversight, punishment after major military disasters
By Leo Shane III
Nov 14, 09:00 AM
A senior Democratic senator is pushing Defense Department leaders to create new processes to investigate disasters within the military in an effort to better prevent other tragedies in the future.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Tuesday, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said the current way such major mishaps are handled by service investigators does not provide enough oversight or instill public confidence in the response.
She wants a new, independent system to ensure “significant changes to address the underlying causes of the mishap and the culture that permitted them to occur.” That would include the firing of troops or civilians involved in the mistakes and possible punishment for service chiefs and secretaries.
Her complaints stem from the Navy’s handling of fuel spills at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. In late 2021, nearly 6,000 individuals were poisoned by water contaminated with petroleum leaking from tanks there, even after Navy officials insisted the water was safe to consume.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2023/11/14/calls-for-more-oversight-punishment-after-major-military-disasters/
