Latest news with #TrevorJ.Bredenkamp
Washington Post
08-04-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Army to resume horse-drawn caissons for funerals at Arlington Cemetery
The Army said Tuesday that it was partially resuming its horse-drawn caisson program for funerals in Arlington National Cemetery, three years after an investigation found that neglectful treatment of horses had contributed to a spate of equine deaths. Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp said the resumption comes after a complete overhaul of the program, in which certain deceased service members are conveyed to their graves in horse-drawn artillery wagons, or caissons. Funding was boosted, Bredenkamp said. Soldier horsemanship training was revised. Custom-made saddles were acquired for the horses. And the weight of the old caissons was reduced. 'We had to basically reinvent the way we were doing these things,' Bredenkamp, commanding general of Joint Task-Force National Capital Region and the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, said in a phone news briefing. The caisson service, long a fixture at the historic cemetery just outside Washington, was suspended in 2023, stemming from the earlier deaths of four Army horses and reports of poor conditions in the Army stables and inexperienced staff. The solemn tradition of bearing the dead on a caisson is tied to the battlefield role of the wagons as they delivered supplies to the front lines and returned with dead and wounded soldiers, according to the Military District of Washington website. Horse-drawn caissons are often used during state funerals, such as the rites for President Jimmy Carter in January. His casket was carried up Capitol Hill by the first of the new caisson units the Army is training, Bredenkamp said. Perhaps the most memorable use of the horse-drawn caisson was during the 1963 funeral of President John F. Kennedy, which was watched by millions of people on television. The cemetery caisson service will resume on a limited basis starting the week of June 2, but horse teams and personnel will start getting used to moving through the cemetery later this month, the Army said in a statement. The service will increase as the Army acquires more horses and trains more soldiers for the program. Problems with the caisson unit first came into public view in 2022, when an Army investigation found the horses' living conditions in stables neglectful, contributing to four equine deaths. A later report put the horse death toll at 11 over an eight-year period. Other reports found horses bore scars from ill-fitted tack, too tight for their bodies. The investigation determined that the overworked horses lived in cramped stalls and paddocks, and were given contaminated feed. A necropsy of one horse found 44 pounds of gravel in its gut, a result of unsanitary living conditions. After a year of physical rehabilitation efforts for the roughly five dozen horses the investigation centered on, all were quietly retired, too old and too broken to continue working. Not all funerals in Arlington get a caisson. In general, those eligible include service members killed in action, recipients of the Medal of Honor or the Prisoner of War Medal, senior noncommissioned officers, senior warrant officers and senior commissioned officers, the Army said. Bredenkamp said funding for the program went from about $1.2 million a year in 2022 to about $10 million now. He said the program now has 46 horses, many of which have been acquired since last summer. He said even though the caissons are much lighter now, the Army is looking for a more modern caisson for the future.
The Intercept
31-01-2025
- General
- The Intercept
Army Aviation Accident Rates Skyrocketed Last Year
The collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet over Washington on Wednesday, which killed 67 people, comes at a terrible time for Army Aviation as accident rates have spiked to levels not seen since early in the century. In 2024, Army Aviation recorded the highest number of Class A flight mishaps — the most serious type of aircraft accidents — since 2014 and the worst Class A flight mishap rate per 100,000 hours since 2007, according to new statistics from the Aviation Division of the Directorate of Analysis and Prevention at the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center. Class A mishaps are those that result in at least $2.5 million in property damage, the destruction of a manned aircraft, and/or a fatality or a catastrophic injury. The Army suffered 15 Class A flight mishaps and two Class A aircraft ground mishaps last year compared to nine flight and one aircraft ground accidents in 2023, and just four flight and four ground mishaps in 2022. (The Army measures all years by fiscal year.) Nine soldiers, one contractor, and one civilian died in flight mishaps in 2024. Another contractor died in an aircraft ground mishap. 'A year that Army Aviation looks back on in hopes of never repeating.' In its January issue, Flightfax, a newsletter focused on 'Army Aircraft Mishap Prevention,' wrote that 2024 'will be a year that Army Aviation looks back on in hopes of never repeating.' The Army described the helicopter which crashed into the American Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet as a UH-60 Black Hawk from Bravo Company of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Davison Army Airfield, based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The helicopter was on a training flight, according to the Defense Department. Military aircraft frequently conduct training flights in and around Washington's congested and heavily restricted airspace. There was one Class A mishap involving a UH-60 Black Hawk in 2024, according to the Directorate of Analysis and Prevention. Black Hawks also suffered 13 Class C mishaps. Such accidents can still result in more than half a million dollars in damage and nonfatal injuries that result in time away from work or training. The 13 Class C mishaps involving Black Hawks were tied for third most across 17 different aircraft types tracked by the Army. The AH-64 Apache helicopter — which first flew in 1975 — saw the most Class A mishaps last year. Eight of the nine were attributed to human error; one resulted from a bird strike. 'Our top priority is to assist in the recovery efforts, while fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other investigative agencies to determine the cause of this tragic incident,' said Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp, commander of the Joint Task Force–National Capital Region/ U.S. Army Military District of Washington in the wake of Wednesday night's crash. 'While the investigation is ongoing, we are committed to transparency and will share accurate updates as soon as they become available,' The Army did not respond to questions regarding the safety record of the Army's 12th Aviation Battalion. The Pentagon did not reply to request for comment about mishaps involving helicopters across the service branches. The three-person Army crew aboard the Black Hawk was 'fairly experienced' according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The average flight experience across the Army is down approximately 300 flight hours per aviator, according to an Army study using data from 2013 to 2023. The Army found that while crew experience was not cited in every mishap, the overall loss is 'a hazard that must be considered.' President Donald Trump suggested that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be the cause of Wednesday's collision. Neither the Army nor the Pentagon responded to The Intercept's questions about whether there was any evidence to support this. American Eagle Flight 5342, a regional jetliner, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members on a flight from Wichita, Kansas; there were no survivors. Fatal accidents involving commercial airliners in the United States are extremely rare. Wednesday's deadly crash marks the first major crash involving a commercial plane in the U.S. since 2009, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, when a Colgan Air flight went down on its way to New York's Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Our deepest condolences go out to all the families': Recovery efforts continue for US Military soldiers after helicopter, plane crashed near DCA
WASHINGTON () — An investigation is underway after a between an American Airlines plane and a military helicopter happened over the icy Potomac River Wednesday night. The fiery crash happened on the night of Jan. 29, when an American Airlines plane, Flight 5342, and a military helicopter collided in mid-air and fell into the river. In a statement released from the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region U.S. Army Military District of Washington, a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter was performing a training mission when the collision took place. 'No survivors' after American Airlines plane, military helicopter collide near DCA, crash into Potomac River Officials confirmed that 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard Flight 5342. The Blackhawk was carrying three soldiers. During a press conference on Thursday morning, the Secretary of the United States Department of Defense, Sean Duffy said debris from the plane was located in three sections along the Potomac River. The American Airlines plane was also discovered upside down. Officials said multiple bodies were recovered from the plane and one body was recovered from the helicopter. Our deepest condolences go out to all the families and friends impacted during this tragedy, and we will support them through this difficult time. Our top priority is to assist in the recovery efforts, while fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other investigative agencies to determine the cause of this tragic incident. Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp, commander Joint Task Force – National Capital Region/ U.S. Army Military District of Washington. The military said the helicopter was from the 12th Aviation Battalion, Davasion Army Airfield, in Fort Belvoir, Va. Fort Belvoir, Army base in Virginia 'While the investigation is ongoing, we are committed to transparency and will share accurate updates as soon as they become available,' said Bredenkamp. The moments that led up to the crash and its cause remain under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the United States Army. The NTSB is leading the investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
