[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H1897-H1899]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLEARING THE NAMES OF JOHN BROW AND BROOKS GRUBER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, on April 8, which was 2 days ago, 13 years
ago, 19 marines crashed and burned in Marana, Arizona. It was a very
tragic time.
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The Osprey, Mr. Speaker, is the plane that goes from a helicopter
mode to a plane mode. At the time of the accident, it was actually in
an experimental phase.
Two years after the accident--I was here at the time the accident
took place--I received a letter from the wife of Brooks Gruber. He's on
my far left. He was the copilot. At the time of the accident, Colonel
John Brow was flying the plane. The sad thing about it is why they had
19 marines on the back. The families do not know. And quite frankly,
the former commandant of the Marine Corps during the time of this
accident, General Jim Jones, not a relation to me, but I think the
world of him, he said to me, I don't know why in the world they did not
have sacks of weight in the back instead of those 17 marines sitting
back there.
{time} 1700
Mr. Speaker, the problem is the lawsuits are over. I've spoken to the
lawyer in Texas, Jim Furman, himself a helicopter pilot during the
Vietnam war, and he represented the families of Connie Gruber and Trish
Brow. In addition, Brian Alexander of New York represented 17 families.
Mr. Speaker, I always believe this--I might be wrong because I'm not an
attorney--that when a substantial settlement is made, then somebody was
seen as being at fault.
The press release has created the problem. On July 27 of the year
2000, in the release, they make reference to a combination of human
factors that caused the April 8 accident. Further stated by Marine
Corps Commandant General James Jones:
The tragedy is that these were all good marines joined in a
challenging mission. Unfortunately, the pilots' drive to
accomplish that mission appears to have been the fatal
factor.
What the family and myself have been battling for since the year 2000
is that the experts have said that the pilots did not understand vortex
ring state and how it impacts the V-22. Vortex ring state is understood
in most helicopters, but the V-22 was new, and they had not done any
testing at all.
Mr. Speaker, I want to read the paragraph from Connie Gruber when she
asked me to look into this. This was dated December 10 of 2002:
With so many wrongs in the world we cannot make right, I
ask that you prayerfully consider an injustice that you can
help make right. I realize you alone may not be able to amend
the report, but you can certainly support my efforts to
permanently remove this black mark from my husband's
honorable military service record. Military leaders continue
to refuse to amend this report, but I am certain there must
be other means of making this change. Given the controversy
of this aircraft and the Marine Corps' vested interest,
surely there is an unbiased, ethical way to rightfully
absolve these pilots. Please help me by not only forwarding
my request but by also supporting it.
When I received that letter from Mrs. Gruber, I called and told her
that I am a strong man of faith, and there was some reason that God put
my name in her letter and that I would do everything I could to clear
the names of Colonel John Brow and Major Brooks Gruber.
I'm not a pilot, Mr. Speaker--and I don't know--but I cannot really
understand being a pilot or a copilot in a situation where you have not
been trained, where you didn't understand the vortex ring state and how
it would impact the V-22 and what you should do. That's the fault of
the United States Marine Corps, and that's the fault of Bell-Boeing.
Again, the lawsuits are settled, and Bell-Boeing settled for big bucks,
if I can say it that way.
I want to give you just another idea. I have talked to so many people
in 10 years that sometimes it gets confusing; but I think what I'm
going to read, Mr. Speaker, probably tells the story as well as
anything. It's from a publication called ``V-22: Wonder Weapon or Widow
Maker.'' I'll read:
That the tests addressing flying qualities and a phenomenon
called ``vortex ring state'' were reduced from 103 mandated
test conditions to the 33 actually flown represents a
cancellation of almost 68 percent of the tests in this key
area, including the crucial two at 20 and 40 knots at high
gross weight specifically applicable in this accident.
This article further states:
That aircrews were tasked with participating in that April
8 night operation without benefit of such highly relevant
test results and experience represents real--and what some
might label criminal--negligence on the part of those NAVAIR
and Marine Corps leaders who knew both the parameters of the
missing tests and the nature of this nighttime exercise.
Without this prior testing experience, data and subsequent
analysis, these pilots should not have been flying such a
mission.
Mr. Speaker, what makes this so ironic is that, as I've shared with
you, I'm in my 12th year of trying to get a letter from the United
States Marine Corps that clearly states--and the facts support this--
that Colonel John Brow, pilot, and Major Brooks Gruber, copilot, were
not prepared to handle vortex ring state in the V-22 Osprey. That's all
the wives want. You would think that we were going to be sued or
something. I've got letters from the lawyers who say, No more suits.
It's over.
Trish has two young boys, Michael and Matthew, and Connie has a
little girl who is just as precious as she can be. It's just one of
those things that, as a man of faith, you just wonder: Where is the
guilt of those who ordered that mission that night? It made no sense.
Dick Cheney was opposed to the Osprey, and he was really trying to
scrap the program. He was Secretary of Defense at the time. So the
Marine Corps ordered a mission where these three planes would go to
Marana, Arizona, and they would play that they were going to recapture
some Americans being held by terrorists. Really, sometimes you just
wonder: Where is the heart? Where is the feeling? These gentlemen,
truthfully, were known as two of the best Osprey pilots that the Marine
Corps had at that time.
By the way, Mr. Speaker, I actually contacted the three marine
investigators for the JAGMAN report. That is the official evaluation of
the accident. Major Phil Stackhouse, Colonel Ron Radish, and Colonel
Mike Morgan have all given me letters in the last year. Each one
clearly states that nothing in the JAGMAN report should indicate that
the pilots did anything in a deliberate way, because the pilots had not
been trained.
Bell-Boeing, after being sued, hired an experimental test pilot, Tom
MacDonald, who is pretty well known in the area of planes. Tom
MacDonald spent 700 hours studying one issue: What happens when the V-
22 gets in the vortex ring state? In 700 hours, he discovered how they
should handle it, and he received a national award known as the
Kincheloe.
I've talked to a lot of people in the 12 years on this issue, and the
one thing that God has allowed me to understand is that His children
deserve to be cleared. I am hopeful. We have back and forth sent a
letter that the Marine Corps is reviewing and that the two wives have
said they would be satisfied with, and our hope is that sometime in the
next few weeks we will get that letter. I will go to the Secretary of
Defense, Chuck Hagel, whom I know and have a friendship with, and I
will ask him to assign someone on his immediate staff to work with me
on this issue.
I hope that the Marine Corps understands that I do not want to do
that, because it would bring more peace to Trish and Connie if the
Marine Corps writes the letter. Again, we're probably talking about at
most three sentences. Trish has said, for the public, I do not want my
children, Michael and Matthew, to go on Google and read that pilot
error was the cause of this accident on April 8 of 2000.
{time} 1710
Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, that is what would happen if any of us on
this floor tonight Googled ``Osprey'' and ``April 8,'' you would see
that. It indicates it was pilot error.
Sometimes I have some kids in my office, as I did today from my
district, some 4-Hers, and they were asking about the things that a
Member of Congress gets involved in. And I said not everything we get
involved in should be or needs to be in the press. Some things that we
get involved in, it's simply because our heart tells us that if you
don't do it, who is going to do it? Who's going to do it if you,
Congressman Walter Jones, don't take it up?
I hope and pray that John Brow and Brooks Gruber and the 17 marines
in the back will be able to rest in peace, Mr. Speaker.
Voltaire said:
We owe the living respect; we owe the dead the truth.
That's all we're asking, is that these two marines can rest in peace.
Mr. Speaker, I have said if this comes to be a reality, that I want
to go to the
[[Page H1899]]
graves--John is buried in Arlington--with his wife and their two boys,
and say, Colonel Brow, it's over. Then with Major Gruber, with his wife
and little girl--he's buried in Jacksonville--is to go with them and
say, Sleep, you're not at fault. Sleep.
Mr. Speaker, I apologize for getting emotional, but I just feel so
passionate about this.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
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