The Collateral Board Investigation; The Crash in Germany, Part Two
To understand this story you should first read the story: “The Crash In Germany”
After the crash in Germany I spent four days in the hospital. Because of the back injury I spent the first two days on my back on a hard surface. The doctors said they wanted to ensure that the fractures of L1 and L1 vertebra had settled and were not going to damage the spinal cord. They were a couple of difficult days.
The third day I asked when I could get up and they told me as soon as I could handle the pain. The next time I needed to go to the restroom I decided I wouldn’t press the button and follow that routine any longer. I walked to the bathroom. It wasn’t a long trip – just across the room. By the time I reached the bathroom I understood what they were talking about when they said as soon as I could handle the pain. It was a long painful trip across the room and back. The forth day I was released from the hospital and sent home.
I knew there would be big investigations into the accident but I was not prepared for what lie ahead. Within a few days of being back in my unit I was told that a ‘Collateral Board” had been ordered and that I should go to the Army legal office and get an attorney. I didn’t know what a collateral board was like but that was all about to change.
When I went to the legal office they assigned a young captain, John B., to be my attorney. Meanwhile Matt was given his own attorney. John B. and I talked about what happened leading up to the accident and the accident in great detail. He told me the collateral board would thoroughly investigate the accident and then make recommendations to the commanders on whom was responsible and what action, if any, should be taken against them. He also told me that it would take some time to complete. Until the board was complete and the matter settled I would not be allowed to fly.
In July the board met for the first time. After just two days it was determined that something was not done properly and the board would be dissolved and a new one formed. A couple of weeks later a new board was formed and meetings started again. The board had a lieutenant colonel (LTC) as a president, another lieutenant colonel, a major, two captains, a warrant officer as a recorder, and an attorney as an advisor.
By mid July the collateral board was meeting regularly and we met with them for all testimony. Matt and his attorney and John B. and I were there to hear every word of testimony. Some weeks the board met every day and other weeks it met two or three days. The board met from July to February when they turned in their recommendations.
The testimony was very difficult to sit through. Every pilot and member of the unit that saw the crash testified as to what they remembered seeing. Experts on the Cobra and aerodynamics came in from the States to testify. The duties and responsibilities of the pilot and copilot were discussed and debated. The regulations and their interpolation and application were discussed. German witnesses testified to what had happened. The Germans that were injured testified. And family members of those killed testified.
Words cannot describe the feelings that I had as I heard everything reviewed over and over from everyone’s point of view. It was especially difficult to face the family members of those killed in the accident. Their testimony cut to the very core of my heart and soul. The only thing to do was to sit there and endure it. I could not take back what had happened. I could not bring back their loved ones. I could not make their family or hearts whole again.
At the end of testimony by each witness our attorneys were asked if they wanted to question the witness or make any statements. Every time without exception my attorney said he had no questions or comments. And without exception Matt’s attorney challenged the testimony, the witness, or insisted that something be added. Matt’s attorney was taking a very hard line and John B. was almost like a bystander.
Every few days John B. and I would meet and discuss the testimony that had been given and I help him understand the flying world. Many times when we met I asked him if his not asking any questions of witnesses or not adding anything was a good idea. He always said that our time would come and when it did we would be ready. I always left his office hoping he knew what he was doing because I didn’t.
In January of 1974, John B. said we should start working on a statement for me to read at the end of the board. He gave me some idea of what I should say and then sent me to work on it. It was to be ten minutes long and it would cover my history as a pilot and my desire to remain an Army aviator. I wrote what I thought and then John B. critiqued it. Then I would rewrite it and John B. would critique the new version. Over a four-week period we perfected what I was to say.
Then as we approached the final days of the collateral board investigation John B. told me that he had decided that it was best if he read my statement. I was surprised and had hoped to make a statement in my own words. It just felt like I should do or say something. Then two days before the last scheduled meeting of the board John B. said we were not going to make any statement. I was not going to and he was not going to. I was surprised and again asked if he thought that was the best plan. He assured me that he knew what he was doing.
The board had been an interesting thing to watch in action. The LTC that was president of the board may have been the ranking officer and on orders to preside over the board, but he didn’t guide and direct what happened. The other LTC had a strong and forceful personality and he really set the course of the board. When the second LTC wanted something or didn’t want something, he would stand up to what he felt should happen and would not back down. The board moved to what he thought should be done, and not what the president wanted. Rank and orders may be on paper but strength of personality drove the train. I thought a great deal about that in light of what I had done and not done. I had been the copilot but I could have still have had the power to stop the events that led up to the accident.
As the board met the last few days they reviewed all of the information they had gathered. Matt’s attorney challenged just about everything they said. John B. said we had no questions or comments. Then the board asked if we had any statements to make. Matt’s attorney took a full day of challenging everything that had been said. At times it seemed to me that he was ranting and raving about nothing. Words were coming out of his mouth and he made them seem strong but they didn’t seem to have anything in the world to do with the subject at hand. It seemed more like a dramatic performance than it did a logical discussion of the things that had happened.
Finally the board president turned to John B. and asked what we wished to add. John B. quietly said we had no statement to add and did not wish to contest anything. Everyone sat in silence for a moment and then the president of the board asked if we were sure. I wasn’t but John B. was and he assured them that we had nothing to add. He made no further statement. The board president then said that the testimony was over and that the board would meet to discuss their recommendations. The board would meet behind closed doors to do that. After they had reached their recommendations they would forward them to the higher command and we would be notified of what they had recommended.
For about two months we waited to hear what the board had recommended. The board had generated eleven three-inch notebooks of testimony. Then one day in April John B. called me and said that he had heard what the board had recommended and that I should come over to his office and we would discuss them. Immediately I went to his office.
John B. greeted me with a smile and said he had good news. He said the board had nine recommendations. Five were about changes in the unit, two were for Matt and two were for me. Of course I was most interested in the ones about me. The future of my family was hanging in the balance.
The board had recommended that Matt receive a court martial for involuntary manslaughter and a flight evaluation board to determine if he should stay on flight status. It was recommended that I receive a court martial for negligent homicide and a flight evaluation board to determine if I should stay on flight status. (I hope I have the manslaughter and involuntary homicide the correct way. The one recommended for Matt carried a possible sentence of one to three years in prison and the one assigned to me carried a possible sentence of three to five years.) I was stunned.
John B. said this was even better than he had expected. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He said that the board must have really liked me. I thought that if the board really liked me I couldn’t afford to have them dislike me. After eight months of sitting silent I was to be receive a court martial for a bigger offence than Matt? How could this be?
John B. said that I didn’t understand what was happening. I admitted that I didn’t. He said the recommendations would be forwarded to the commander of US forces in Europe for his approval. He said the commander could only approve or disapprove the recommendations. John B. said the board knew that it didn’t make sense for me to be court marshaled for a larger offence and that is why they recommended it. Had the board recommended that I be court marshaled for a lesser offence the commander might have approved it. I asked what if the commander does approve the recommendation that I be court marshaled? John B. said that a court martial would fail to convict me of the greater offence and if they did we had an automatic appeal. I left the office still not certain John B. was right. When this was all over John B. would log a win or a loss and I might go to jail.
From April until July we waited to hear what the future held. Finally word came that the four star commander had thrown out the court martial for me. All other recommendations had been approved. I would face another board to determine if I should be allowed to continue to fly. Matt would face the court martial and the flight board. John B. had been right about everything.
In early August the board was held to determine if I should be allowed to continue to fly. The board lasted only a few days and then recommended that I be allowed to continue to fly. I finally felt I was finished with sitting in boards. In just a few days orders came putting me back on flight status.
Before I could resume flying I had to take a post accident flight evaluation. The head instructor pilot in the unit was my primary flight instructor Pete. Pete was known to demand performance way beyond what the Army required. Pete did not cut me any slack on the check ride. The oral evaluation lasted two days and the flight was 2.8 hours long. He had me do maneuvers that were not in the book. The checkride was on August 26, 1974. I had put in my papers to get out of the Army on August 31, 1974. When the ride was over Pete tried to talk me into staying the Army.
Pete was a member of the group of instructor pilots called “World Wide Standards” which was chosen by the Army to go around the world to all Army units and give evaluation rides. In Army aviation it was considered to be the top dog job that an instructor pilot could have. Other pilots feared them and thought they walked on water. Pete asked me who I thought was going to take his place if I got out of the Army? He said stay and in a little while I would be on the World Wide Standards Board. It was a nice compliment but I couldn’t stay. Four people had lost their lives and I had to walk away and come to grips with what had happened.
Matt never seemed to change. Through over fourteen months of testimony and all that had followed the accident, Matt seemed to carry the same cocky arrogant attitude he had before the accident. After the accident he had gotten a small door from the aircraft that we crashed in. On the door was the aircraft tail number and unit logo. It was kept in his home on the fireplace mantle. The way he acted I could not believe it was to serve as a reminder of the terrible accident and loss of life that had happened. Others in the unit felt it was some kind of a trophy for him. I have never understood it.
In September 1974 Matt was court marshaled. In a pretrial agreement it was agreed that he would not be busted in rank or serve any jail time. The results of the court martial were that he was fined one hundred dollars a month for a period of twelve months. After paying three hundred dollars Matt got out of the Army in December 1974. He never flew again in that unit.
There are times in life when we are heated in the fire and then hammered and forged into something new. Through the accident and the months that followed I was fired, hammered and reshaped. If we can endure the heat and the pounding we can be better tomorrow than we are today or were yesterday. The heat of the fire is hard to endure and the shaping and forming can be even harder to take. But after enduring the hard times in life we can rise from the ashes stronger and better than we were before. We may not always be able to select the times, places or events that happen to us but the form or the shape we take and how we emerge from them is up to us!
After the crash in Germany I spent four days in the hospital. Because of the back injury I spent the first two days on my back on a hard surface. The doctors said they wanted to ensure that the fractures of L1 and L1 vertebra had settled and were not going to damage the spinal cord. They were a couple of difficult days.
The third day I asked when I could get up and they told me as soon as I could handle the pain. The next time I needed to go to the restroom I decided I wouldn’t press the button and follow that routine any longer. I walked to the bathroom. It wasn’t a long trip – just across the room. By the time I reached the bathroom I understood what they were talking about when they said as soon as I could handle the pain. It was a long painful trip across the room and back. The forth day I was released from the hospital and sent home.
I knew there would be big investigations into the accident but I was not prepared for what lie ahead. Within a few days of being back in my unit I was told that a ‘Collateral Board” had been ordered and that I should go to the Army legal office and get an attorney. I didn’t know what a collateral board was like but that was all about to change.
When I went to the legal office they assigned a young captain, John B., to be my attorney. Meanwhile Matt was given his own attorney. John B. and I talked about what happened leading up to the accident and the accident in great detail. He told me the collateral board would thoroughly investigate the accident and then make recommendations to the commanders on whom was responsible and what action, if any, should be taken against them. He also told me that it would take some time to complete. Until the board was complete and the matter settled I would not be allowed to fly.
In July the board met for the first time. After just two days it was determined that something was not done properly and the board would be dissolved and a new one formed. A couple of weeks later a new board was formed and meetings started again. The board had a lieutenant colonel (LTC) as a president, another lieutenant colonel, a major, two captains, a warrant officer as a recorder, and an attorney as an advisor.
By mid July the collateral board was meeting regularly and we met with them for all testimony. Matt and his attorney and John B. and I were there to hear every word of testimony. Some weeks the board met every day and other weeks it met two or three days. The board met from July to February when they turned in their recommendations.
The testimony was very difficult to sit through. Every pilot and member of the unit that saw the crash testified as to what they remembered seeing. Experts on the Cobra and aerodynamics came in from the States to testify. The duties and responsibilities of the pilot and copilot were discussed and debated. The regulations and their interpolation and application were discussed. German witnesses testified to what had happened. The Germans that were injured testified. And family members of those killed testified.
Words cannot describe the feelings that I had as I heard everything reviewed over and over from everyone’s point of view. It was especially difficult to face the family members of those killed in the accident. Their testimony cut to the very core of my heart and soul. The only thing to do was to sit there and endure it. I could not take back what had happened. I could not bring back their loved ones. I could not make their family or hearts whole again.
At the end of testimony by each witness our attorneys were asked if they wanted to question the witness or make any statements. Every time without exception my attorney said he had no questions or comments. And without exception Matt’s attorney challenged the testimony, the witness, or insisted that something be added. Matt’s attorney was taking a very hard line and John B. was almost like a bystander.
Every few days John B. and I would meet and discuss the testimony that had been given and I help him understand the flying world. Many times when we met I asked him if his not asking any questions of witnesses or not adding anything was a good idea. He always said that our time would come and when it did we would be ready. I always left his office hoping he knew what he was doing because I didn’t.
In January of 1974, John B. said we should start working on a statement for me to read at the end of the board. He gave me some idea of what I should say and then sent me to work on it. It was to be ten minutes long and it would cover my history as a pilot and my desire to remain an Army aviator. I wrote what I thought and then John B. critiqued it. Then I would rewrite it and John B. would critique the new version. Over a four-week period we perfected what I was to say.
Then as we approached the final days of the collateral board investigation John B. told me that he had decided that it was best if he read my statement. I was surprised and had hoped to make a statement in my own words. It just felt like I should do or say something. Then two days before the last scheduled meeting of the board John B. said we were not going to make any statement. I was not going to and he was not going to. I was surprised and again asked if he thought that was the best plan. He assured me that he knew what he was doing.
The board had been an interesting thing to watch in action. The LTC that was president of the board may have been the ranking officer and on orders to preside over the board, but he didn’t guide and direct what happened. The other LTC had a strong and forceful personality and he really set the course of the board. When the second LTC wanted something or didn’t want something, he would stand up to what he felt should happen and would not back down. The board moved to what he thought should be done, and not what the president wanted. Rank and orders may be on paper but strength of personality drove the train. I thought a great deal about that in light of what I had done and not done. I had been the copilot but I could have still have had the power to stop the events that led up to the accident.
As the board met the last few days they reviewed all of the information they had gathered. Matt’s attorney challenged just about everything they said. John B. said we had no questions or comments. Then the board asked if we had any statements to make. Matt’s attorney took a full day of challenging everything that had been said. At times it seemed to me that he was ranting and raving about nothing. Words were coming out of his mouth and he made them seem strong but they didn’t seem to have anything in the world to do with the subject at hand. It seemed more like a dramatic performance than it did a logical discussion of the things that had happened.
Finally the board president turned to John B. and asked what we wished to add. John B. quietly said we had no statement to add and did not wish to contest anything. Everyone sat in silence for a moment and then the president of the board asked if we were sure. I wasn’t but John B. was and he assured them that we had nothing to add. He made no further statement. The board president then said that the testimony was over and that the board would meet to discuss their recommendations. The board would meet behind closed doors to do that. After they had reached their recommendations they would forward them to the higher command and we would be notified of what they had recommended.
For about two months we waited to hear what the board had recommended. The board had generated eleven three-inch notebooks of testimony. Then one day in April John B. called me and said that he had heard what the board had recommended and that I should come over to his office and we would discuss them. Immediately I went to his office.
John B. greeted me with a smile and said he had good news. He said the board had nine recommendations. Five were about changes in the unit, two were for Matt and two were for me. Of course I was most interested in the ones about me. The future of my family was hanging in the balance.
The board had recommended that Matt receive a court martial for involuntary manslaughter and a flight evaluation board to determine if he should stay on flight status. It was recommended that I receive a court martial for negligent homicide and a flight evaluation board to determine if I should stay on flight status. (I hope I have the manslaughter and involuntary homicide the correct way. The one recommended for Matt carried a possible sentence of one to three years in prison and the one assigned to me carried a possible sentence of three to five years.) I was stunned.
John B. said this was even better than he had expected. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He said that the board must have really liked me. I thought that if the board really liked me I couldn’t afford to have them dislike me. After eight months of sitting silent I was to be receive a court martial for a bigger offence than Matt? How could this be?
John B. said that I didn’t understand what was happening. I admitted that I didn’t. He said the recommendations would be forwarded to the commander of US forces in Europe for his approval. He said the commander could only approve or disapprove the recommendations. John B. said the board knew that it didn’t make sense for me to be court marshaled for a larger offence and that is why they recommended it. Had the board recommended that I be court marshaled for a lesser offence the commander might have approved it. I asked what if the commander does approve the recommendation that I be court marshaled? John B. said that a court martial would fail to convict me of the greater offence and if they did we had an automatic appeal. I left the office still not certain John B. was right. When this was all over John B. would log a win or a loss and I might go to jail.
From April until July we waited to hear what the future held. Finally word came that the four star commander had thrown out the court martial for me. All other recommendations had been approved. I would face another board to determine if I should be allowed to continue to fly. Matt would face the court martial and the flight board. John B. had been right about everything.
In early August the board was held to determine if I should be allowed to continue to fly. The board lasted only a few days and then recommended that I be allowed to continue to fly. I finally felt I was finished with sitting in boards. In just a few days orders came putting me back on flight status.
Before I could resume flying I had to take a post accident flight evaluation. The head instructor pilot in the unit was my primary flight instructor Pete. Pete was known to demand performance way beyond what the Army required. Pete did not cut me any slack on the check ride. The oral evaluation lasted two days and the flight was 2.8 hours long. He had me do maneuvers that were not in the book. The checkride was on August 26, 1974. I had put in my papers to get out of the Army on August 31, 1974. When the ride was over Pete tried to talk me into staying the Army.
Pete was a member of the group of instructor pilots called “World Wide Standards” which was chosen by the Army to go around the world to all Army units and give evaluation rides. In Army aviation it was considered to be the top dog job that an instructor pilot could have. Other pilots feared them and thought they walked on water. Pete asked me who I thought was going to take his place if I got out of the Army? He said stay and in a little while I would be on the World Wide Standards Board. It was a nice compliment but I couldn’t stay. Four people had lost their lives and I had to walk away and come to grips with what had happened.
Matt never seemed to change. Through over fourteen months of testimony and all that had followed the accident, Matt seemed to carry the same cocky arrogant attitude he had before the accident. After the accident he had gotten a small door from the aircraft that we crashed in. On the door was the aircraft tail number and unit logo. It was kept in his home on the fireplace mantle. The way he acted I could not believe it was to serve as a reminder of the terrible accident and loss of life that had happened. Others in the unit felt it was some kind of a trophy for him. I have never understood it.
In September 1974 Matt was court marshaled. In a pretrial agreement it was agreed that he would not be busted in rank or serve any jail time. The results of the court martial were that he was fined one hundred dollars a month for a period of twelve months. After paying three hundred dollars Matt got out of the Army in December 1974. He never flew again in that unit.
There are times in life when we are heated in the fire and then hammered and forged into something new. Through the accident and the months that followed I was fired, hammered and reshaped. If we can endure the heat and the pounding we can be better tomorrow than we are today or were yesterday. The heat of the fire is hard to endure and the shaping and forming can be even harder to take. But after enduring the hard times in life we can rise from the ashes stronger and better than we were before. We may not always be able to select the times, places or events that happen to us but the form or the shape we take and how we emerge from them is up to us!
posted by Bruce | 1:05 PM
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