[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7297-7300]
[From the U.S. 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, 13 years ago, on April 8, 2000, 19 marines 
lost their lives in a tragic plane crash at Marana Regional Airport in 
Arizona. The Marine Corps attributed partial blame for the crash to 
error on the part of the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel John Brow, and the 
copilot, Major Brooks Gruber. The Corps' decision to assign blame to 
the pilots has been a point of controversy ever since the year 2000.
  Mr. Speaker, 2 years after the accident, I received a letter from 
Major Gruber's wife, Connie, who actually lives in the district that I 
represent, the home of Camp Lejeune Marine Base and New River Air 
Station. I will quote from her letter to me that I received in 2000:

       I contacted you in hopes that leaders of integrity, free of 
     bias, would have both the intelligence and the courage it 
     takes to decide the facts for themselves. If you do that, you 
     will agree the ``human factor/pilot error'' findings should 
     not stand as it is in military history. Again, I respectfully 
     ask you for your support. Please do not simply pass this 
     matter along to General Jones without offering the support my 
     husband and his comrades deserve. Please remember, these 19 
     marines can no longer speak for themselves. I certainly am 
     not afraid to speak for them, and I believe someone has to. 
     Even though it is easier put to rest and forgotten, please 
     join me in doing the right thing by taking the time to 
     address this important issue.

  Mr. Speaker, she further stated:

       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 that there 
     must be other means of making this change. Given the 
     controversy of this aircraft and the Marine

[[Page 7298]]

     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 also by supporting it.

  Mr. Speaker, I hold up now a photograph of the V-22 Osprey. The 
Osprey is a very unique plane. At the time of this accident in the year 
2000, it was an experimental plane. These two pilots, John Brow and 
Brooks Gruber, were not experimental pilots. They had no training in 
flying an experimental plane. This plane itself should never have been 
asked to do what was done that night. In fact, Secretary of Defense 
Dick Cheney was trying to eliminate the V-22 program. I was in Congress 
at the time, and I remember vividly that it was a major fight here in 
Congress as to whether we were going to fund the V-22 program or not 
fund the program.
  Again, Secretary of Defense Cheney wanted to scrap the program. The 
Marine Corps wanted the V-22. They were convinced this was a plane that 
they needed desperately. There were two pilots, one of Nighthawk 71, 
which was the lead plane that actually landed without too much trouble, 
even though it did have a hard landing, and in the second plane behind 
them was Nighthawk 72. That was the plane that crashed and killed 19 
marines.
  Since receiving Connie Gruber's letter, I have done everything in my 
power over the last 12 years to clear the names of Lieutenant Colonel 
John Brow and Major Brooks Gruber. What has frustrated me was the 
Marine Corps will not acknowledge that these pilots could not be and 
should not be held at fault because they had no training in the V-22.
  There was an issue known as vortex ring state. Mr. Speaker, anyone 
that flies, particularly helicopters, would understand that term, 
``vortex ring state.'' But at the time of this accident, Bell-Boeing, 
who produced this V-22, and the Marine Corps had no idea of how pilots 
would react to vortex ring state with the V-22.
  Mr. Speaker, I have brought a little model to the floor, with the 
approval of the House, that will show that the plane can go from a 
helicopter mode to a plane mode, where it flies just like a regular 
plane. But at this point, again, Bell-Boeing and also the Marine Corps 
did not understand vortex ring state and how it could impact this 
plane. When this plane is coming down, following behind, Nighthawk 72, 
what happened was that the vortex ring state really made this plane 
just flip over, and the plane crashed and 19 marines were burned to 
death.

                              {time}  1530

  Mr. Speaker, the wives of these two pilots, John Brow and Brooks 
Gruber, all they're asking--the lawsuits are over. Bell-Boeing has been 
sued for millions and millions of dollars--it hasn't been disclosed, so 
no one knows the exact figure. But I can tell you, after talking to the 
attorney for Connie Gruber and Trish Brow, that the lawsuits are over. 
I've spoken to Brian Alexander, who handled the lawsuits for 17 of the 
19 families in New York. He said the lawsuits are over.
  So basically all we're asking the Marine Corps to do is to please 
just issue a letter to Connie and Trish that clearly states that: Your 
husband, flying this V-22, was not prepared on how to handle vortex 
ring state because Bell-Boeing and we, the Marine Corps, did not 
understand it either, so how can we train pilots if we don't understand 
what we're trying to train them in.
  So, therefore, it's been a very frustrating 10 or 12 years of trying 
to get the Marine Corps to bring peace to John Brow and Brooks Gruber.
  Mr. Speaker, Rich Whittle, with whom I've had many conversations, 
wrote the book called ``The Dream Machine.'' It's the history of the V-
22 and all the problems it's had along the way and all the fights that 
we've had in Congress and outside of Congress to make this plane a 
reality for the Marine Corps. But something I want to read from his 
book, ``The Dream Machine.'' We're talking about vortex ring state, Mr. 
Speaker:

       Where the actual line existed for the Osprey was something 
     the program's developmental test pilots had not determined, 
     though hundreds of test flights to explore that part of the 
     Osprey's envelope had been planned.

  They had planned, Mr. Speaker, to have hundreds of tests, but it 
further states:

       Nolan Schmidt, the Osprey program manager and a Marine 
     Corps colonel at the time, told me years later that those 
     tests were scrapped in 1998 to save time and money. The Navy 
     Department was going to cut the Osprey program's budget for 
     the coming fiscal year by $100 million, Schmidt said. After 
     consulting with the Boeing engineer in charge of flight-
     testing, Philip Dunford, Schmidt said, the program managers 
     decided they could save about $50 million and a lot of time 
     if they didn't do all the tests planned for the Osprey at 
     high rates of descent.

  Mr. Speaker, again, these pilots in Nighthawk 72, following behind 
Nighthawk 71, were descending, and yet no one knew what the parameters 
were--the pilots did not know the parameters, the Marine Corps did not 
know the parameters, and neither did Bell-Boeing. So how in the world 
could these pilots be held responsible? It is absolutely unfair.
  I can honestly tell you at the time I knew General McCorkle. He was 
the general that oversaw marine aviation. His assistant at the time was 
Brigadier General Amos, who now is the Commandant of the Marine Corps. 
They knew at the time that the V-22 was under tremendous pressure by 
Secretary of Defense Cheney to scrap the program.
  Sadly I say this--because I know both these gentlemen, they're very 
fine fellows, but I will say this: that dead men can't talk. These two 
pilots had no one to speak for them but their wives--Connie Gruber down 
in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Trish Brow over in Maryland. And 
they have children. Trish has two young boys and Connie has a beautiful 
little girl named Brook.
  Mr. Speaker, that's why this has become an obsession with me, quite 
frankly. I'm not an expert in flying, I know nothing about how to keep 
a plane in the air to be honest with you. But Mr. Speaker, I have had 
so many people to join me in this effort, and one of those people is an 
expert named Rex Rivolo. In fact, he was working with the V-22 program 
when he was in the Department of Defense, and I want to read his 
comments, Mr. Speaker, for the Record:

       The failure of the manufacturer, Bell-Boeing, and the Navy 
     to characterize the slow-speed, high rate of descent handling 
     qualities of the V-22 through flight testing, the failure to 
     describe them for the air crew and the failure to provide an 
     adequate warning system in the aircraft were the causes of 
     the mishap--not air crew error.
       Following the mishap and my discovery of the facts, I 
     became very vocal within the V-22 community in my attempt to 
     clear the air crew of blame. However, it quickly became clear 
     that the community well-understood the causes but was 
     committed to placing the blame on the air crew, as blaming 
     the aircraft at this time would have jeopardized the MV-22 
     Program, which was, and remains, the highest priority of the 
     U.S. Marine Corps.

  Mr. Speaker, that in itself is so sad, that this expert, an 
engineering expert in aerodynamics, would make this kind of statement, 
but I just read it for the Record, Mr. Speaker. He knew and he knows 
that at that time these two men, who had no one to defend them, had to 
take the blame to save the program.
  Mr. Speaker, America's greatness is because we are a country of 
integrity and honesty. I've done research on this and found out that 
people that knew these men, that flew with them--their fellow marines--
would tell you today that John Brow and Brooks Gruber were not prepared 
for what happened--and no other one who flew a V-22 at the time 
understood vortex ring state and how to react to it.
  Mr. Speaker, now that the program has been saved, there is no reason 
that the Marine Corps cannot give a letter to Connie Gruber and Trish 
Brow clearly stating that at the time, April 8, 2000, that we, the 
Marine Corps, and Bell-Boeing, the manufacturer, we did not understand 
vortex ring state because no one had done the testing because they cut 
the programs, they cut the testing.
  Mr. Speaker, truthfully, what is so ironic, shortly after this crash 
on April 8, Bell-Boeing paid Tom MacDonald, an experimental pilot who 
spent over 700

[[Page 7299]]

hours flying the V-22 time after time, time after time and getting it 
into the vortex ring state and then figuring out how the pilot should 
react to it. Mr. Speaker, because of that work by Tom MacDonald, we now 
have warning systems in the V-22 that pilots, when they get into vortex 
ring state, the warning system starts lighting up on the panel. They 
hear a sound in the headphones that says ``sink, sink, sink.'' So they 
know exactly how to handle vortex ring state. But John Brow and Brooks 
Gruber did not know how to handle vortex ring state.
  I continue to call on the Marine Corps to do what is right. The Corps 
has one of the greatest respects of the American people because of 
integrity and courage. Well, Mr. Commandant, the right thing to do is 
to prove integrity and courage by giving the two wives one paragraph.
  Mr. Speaker, further, I've had so many people to help with this 
effort. The Assistant Secretary of Defense and the director of 
operational test and evaluation at the time of the crash in 2000 was 
Philip Coyle. He has joined in this effort with Rex Rivolo. And I read 
what Philip Coyle said:

       There is a rush to blame pilots, and to cite factors that 
     relate to pilot performance, rather than cite the true root 
     causes of accidents. The design and detailed engineering in 
     an aircraft or vehicle often is at the root cause of an 
     accident. If a particular make or model of automobile was 
     crashing too often, say Toyota or Chevy, people wouldn't 
     blame the drivers; they would say that something is wrong 
     with the automobile. The Marine Corps has always seems to 
     blame the pilots.

  Mr. Speaker, this is why this has become a passion for me personally. 
And I could not be where I am today without so many experts--I 
mentioned two today, Phil Coyle and Rex Rivolo--who have joined me. I 
want to mention Jim Schafer. Jim's call name was ``Trigger.'' He was 
actually in the air at the time of this plane crash. He saw his friends 
go down and burn.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not right for these two wives to carry the pain 
now almost 13 years--April 8 of 2000, and we've already passed April 8 
of 2013. All they're asking the Marine Corps for is a simple letter to 
just state: At the time, we did not understand, Bell-Boeing didn't 
understand, so, therefore, we couldn't train your husbands. So, 
therefore, your husbands could not have known how to react.
  Now they have all these warning systems that I just mentioned a 
moment ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I am not going to let this go. In fact, I have a meeting 
with the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, on the 10th of July--he has 
already confirmed the date. I have accumulated so much information on 
this issue that I probably could have a small library that people could 
come in and research this accident. But I have great respect for Chuck 
Hagel. I remember him as a Senator when I came out against the Iraq war 
and I was getting beaten up down in my own district down in eastern 
North Carolina. I did not know Senator Hagel at the time, but he called 
me up and left word. I returned his call. He said, ``Congressman, 
you're right, Iraq was an unnecessary war, I want to meet with you.'' 
So I went over and met with him, Mr. Speaker. He had his staff spend 
weeks to show me maps on Iraq and the fact that there were never 
weapons of mass destruction.

                              {time}  1540

  For that I'm of the firm belief that I will meet with him for 30 
minutes--that's all he could give me--and I think he will understand 
that this is not about me, Walter Jones. This is about honor, this is 
about respect; and the two dead pilots deserve this, Mr. Speaker.
  Just a few more points, Mr. Speaker, before I close. Curt Weldon, 
when they were fighting this program--Secretary Cheney was fighting 
this program--in '98, '99, and 2000, especially after this crash, the 
one man in the Congress, Mr. Speaker--and I was here at the time and I 
can attest to this--was Curt Weldon, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, 
who took on the administration, that took on Dick Cheney and said, 
we've got to have this program, we've got to have this program for the 
Marine Corps, the Marine Corps wants the V-22, and this is their 
present and this is their future plane.
  Curt Weldon now, Mr. Speaker, has joined me, and I want to share from 
a letter. Curt Weldon, these are his words:

       I have found it outrageous that the Marine Corps has 
     willingly failed to fully clarify the improper 
     characterization that pilot errors may have contributed to 
     the tragic accident of Nighthawk 72. I join with Lieutenant 
     Colonel Ron Radich, Retired United States Marine Corps, a 
     member of the JAG Investigation Team for the April 8, 2000, 
     MV-22 accident in his assessment that ``it would be morally 
     wrong'' to place the blame on the pilots of Nighthawk 72. 
     Everyone, save the most senior leadership of the United 
     States Marine Corps, has acknowledged that the Marine Corps 
     must formally acknowledged the facts and summaries of the 
     investigations and publicly and clearly restore the 
     outstanding commitments and reputation of these two brave 
     marines--there can be no wavering and no innuendo--facts are 
     facts.
       You have my unwavering support to appear at any public 
     event and/or congressional hearing to set the record straight 
     regarding the need for United States Marine Corps leadership 
     to stop ``playing games'' and once and for all correct the 
     public record regarding the Nighthawk 72 incident and fully 
     clear the names of these two American heroes.

  Mr. Speaker, I want to read that one more time, just to close, by 
Curt Weldon, a former United States Congressman, who fought and saved 
the V-22 program for the Marine Corps. He saved the program.

       You have my unwavering support to appear at any public 
     event and/or congressional hearing to set the record straight 
     regarding the need for United States Marine Corps leadership 
     to stop ``playing games'' and once and for all correct the 
     public record regarding the Nighthawk 72 incident and fully 
     clear the names of these two American heroes.

  Mr. Speaker, there are so many people who have joined me in this 
effort. I'm going to name a few. The three investigators, now retired, 
but at the time Colonel Mike Morgan, a helicopter pilot himself; a 
lawyer, Phil Stackhouse; and Lieutenant Colonel Ron Radich, who I just 
made reference to in Curt Weldon's statement.
  These three men were sent to Arizona the day after the accident. Mr. 
Speaker, they were sent there to investigate the wreckage, the burned 
wreckage that killed 19 marines. All three of these men, Mr. Speaker, 
have joined me in strong letters to clear the names of John Brow and 
Brooks Gruber.
  I made reference earlier to Colonel Jim Shafer, a V-22 pilot, friends 
of these two pilots. He also has joined in saying that at the time we 
did not understand vortex ring state, at the time we did not understand 
how vortex ring state would impact on the V-22 Osprey. Mr. Speaker, 
again, I hold this up because the Osprey is a unique plane. It goes 
from a helicopter mode until it goes to like a plane just flying with 
the propellers in front of it, and then it goes back up. But Jim Shafer 
has said that John Brow and Brooks Gruber do not deserve the blame for 
this accident.
  I made reference to Dr. Rex Rivolo in my comments earlier, Mr. 
Speaker. He's a strong proponent of clearing the pilots' names.
  Brian Alexander, I made reference that he had handled the lawsuits 
for 17 of the 19 families whose young sons were killed.
  Jim Furman, who was the attorney for the two pilots, John Brow and 
Brooks Gruber, their families.
  Eric Thorson, a former aircraft investigator for the United States 
Air Force, he's actually joined us in this as well.
  And I mentioned Phil Coyle, because Phil Coyle has said he was on the 
inside, he saw it. These pilots could not be held at fault because they 
were not to blame.
  Danielle Brian, executive director, Project on Government Oversight, 
she's joined in this effort.
  And Bob Cox, a reporter for the Fort Worth Star.
  Mr. Speaker, I will close in just a few minutes, because I want to 
thank the staff for staying on to give me this opportunity to talk 
about this issue.
  I have made a promise to Connie Gruber in Jacksonville. Her husband, 
Brooks Gruber, is buried down in the cemetery, Veterans Cemetery in 
Jacksonville, North Carolina. I have met Trish Brow and her two boys, 
Mark and Matthew. I've taken them to lunch here in the Members' dining 
room. Both those ladies have my promise, Mr.

[[Page 7300]]

Speaker, that if we ever get just one paragraph, that I would like to 
go to the cemetery at Arlington and stand there with Trish and Matthew 
and Mark and say: ``Colonel, rest in peace. You will never be blamed 
again for this accident because you were not at fault.''
  Then I want to go to the cemetery in Jacksonville, North Carolina, 
with Connie and her little girl, Brooke. Brooke was a baby when her 
daddy was killed. She's a beautiful little girl of 12 now, I guess soon 
to be 13. She never knew her daddy. She has just seen pictures of him 
holding her as a little baby and smiling at her. That just made it 
very, very special.
  These two men deserve in the eyes of God to be cleared. I am not the 
smartest man in Congress, and I do not profess to be one; but God gave 
me a big heart, and he put this on me almost 13 years ago. And what I 
have found out, Mr. Speaker, is we are right. We are right. The Marine 
Corps is wrong in this situation. The experts who helped develop the V-
22 have said: We are right and the Marine Corps is wrong. Curt Weldon 
who fought so valiantly to save the program deserves the credit. He's 
joined and said these two men deserve to be cleared.
  Mr. Speaker, I remember vividly a quote from Voltaire:

       To the living we owe respect, to the dead we owe the truth.

  That's all this is all about, the truth that these two marines were 
not trained, did not understand, nor did Bell-Boeing, nor did the 
Marine Corps. They were not trained as to how to handle the vortex ring 
state.
  We have gotten a little bit further in the last year, but recently 
the Marine Corps rejected a letter that the wives had signed off on if 
they could change two words. And the two words are the same word, the 
word ``solely,'' the word ``solely.'' The pilots are not ``solely'' at 
fault.
  Mr. Speaker, that bothers me because I know, and the Marine Corps 
knows, that they were not trained. Now, if they had been trained as to 
how to react and respond to vortex ring state in the V-22, then I might 
be able to accept that word ``solely.'' But how in the world can you 
say that pilots who were not trained because Bell-Boeing did not know 
how to handle vortex ring state in the V-22, the Marine Corps did not 
understand it, so if they didn't understand it and they didn't train 
the pilots, how could they be ``solely'' responsible?

                              {time}  1550

  That is absolutely unacceptable to the wives, and it is unacceptable 
to me. So therefore, again, Mr. Speaker, I am going to meet with 
Secretary Hagel on the 10th of July. I will be prepared. I only have 30 
minutes, but that's fine. I know he's a busy man with all of the 
problems facing our military and the world; but if he'll give me 30 
minutes, I will show him in 20 minutes why these pilots should not be 
held responsible for this accident.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you and the staff for giving me this 
extra time. This is one of these things that is a religion with me. I 
don't fly much. I've been in a few small planes, and I cannot imagine 
the panic of these two fellows, knowing that they've got 17 young 
marines, privates and corporals, sitting in the back of this plane and 
how they must have felt. I don't know. God knows their hearts, because 
He was with them when they went down, but all I can think of is the 
panic of something you had not been trained to handle, the panic of, 
What do we do now?
  Brooks, John, what do we do now? We've got seconds, seconds.
  And then the plane flips and burns.
  I ask God to touch the hearts of the United States Marine Corps and 
of the commandant. The commandant now is a fine gentleman--I know him, 
and I have respect for him--but he was there the day and the night of 
this crash.
  The whole reason for this mission was to show the anti-V-22s and 
Secretary Dick Cheney that this was a remarkable plane, this V-22 
Osprey, because they could show how they could descend so quickly and 
recover some Americans that would be held by terrorists. That was the 
mission they were on in Marana, Arizona--to show the world that this 
plane was unique and that it could land and descend quickly and hit the 
ground and get these people out. Well, the problem was that no one 
understood the parameters of this plane and how it should descend; so, 
therefore, these 19 marines were killed.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope to be back on the floor right after the Memorial 
Day break before I meet with the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, and 
talk about this again. I believe sincerely that we are all stronger 
people and better people when we admit we've made a mistake, and when 
an organization that the American people love so much like the Marine 
Corps--and I love the Marine Corps, but quite frankly, when they will 
not give Connie and Trish a little paragraph, like I have already said 
three times today, which clearly states that their husbands were not at 
fault, it is very disappointing to say the least.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, as I do on the floor when I think about all 
of our men and women overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, I am going to 
ask God to please bless our men and women in uniform and to please 
bless the families of our men and women in uniform.
  I ask God in His loving arms to hold the families who have given a 
child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  I am going to ask at this time that God touch the hearts of the 
United States Marine Corps to give peace to the families of John Brow 
and Brooks Gruber.
  I will ask God to please bless the House and Senate, that we will do 
what is right in the eyes of God for God's people today and God's 
people tomorrow.
  I will ask God to please bless the President of the United States of 
America, that he will do what is right in the eyes of God for God's 
people today and God's people tomorrow.
  And three times I will say, God, please, God, please, God, please, 
continue to bless America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________