Colonel Darron Wright; pride goes before the fall
The News Tribune reports on the investigation of the death of Colonel Darron Wright when he was making a parachute jump in North Carolina last September.
Apparently, Wright had just rejoined the XVIIIth Airborne Corps after a tour with a Stryker Brigade at Joint Base Lewis McCord. They say that he had more than 60 jumps under his belt. But, he was jumping the MC-6 parachute that he had never used before. When he arrived two hours late for pre-jump training, the jump master just assumed that him and his officer-mates didn’t need to go through pre-jump. For the uninitiated, pre-jump is a quick refresher on exiting the aircraft, parachute landing falls and safety procedures for things that might happen in the air.
I’ve never used (or even heard of until today) the MC-6 parachute, but I guess a trooper needs to jump from 1200 feet for it to open safely, but no one bothered to tell the pilot who put the troops out at 1000 feet. That along with a series of other events, including skipping pre-jump led to the colonel’s death;
[Accident investigator Brigadier General Christopher] Cavoli wrote that Wright “should not have been able to get on the manifest” for the jump because his certification from his refresher courses had expired.
He also found that none of the soldiers should have been able to use the MC-6 parachutes without written permission from a general officer. They did not get it, but no one questioned them.
“It is evident that the existing culture in XVIII Airborne Corps accepts that high-ranking individuals may skip institutionalized procedures with which the rest of the airborne population complies,” Cavoli wrote.
His report recommends 25 policy changes that affect planning for airborne missions, medical support at paratrooper drop zones and the organization of the notoriously overworked 11th Quartermaster Company.
So, what happened was that Wright had a weak exit and hit the door of the aircraft on his way out which sent him into a spin and wrapped him up in the suspension lines. He wasn’t able to open his reserve until he was only 40 feet from the ground, which, of course, was too late.
The bottom line;
Wright’s tragic fall from an Air Force C-130 plane flying 1,000 feet above the ground in North Carolina was made possible by a string of administrative oversights, according to the investigation. It was also enabled by a “VIP culture” at Fort Bragg, the Army’s largest post, that allowed senior officers to make late demands on their subordinates and skip the basic safety briefings junior soldiers must attend.
“This VIP crap stops now,” Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, commander of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, fumed when he read the report on how one of his highest-ranking officers died in a preventable accident, according to an officer who was present.
The military must be running out of O-6s about now.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Sad, but happens too often – afraid to hold senior personnel to the same “lowly” standards as subordinates. I work as a safety professional in civvie life now and see it all the time.
Leaders gotta lead from the front and follow the same rules…
Yup rank has its privileges all right. But you don’t always get what you want. The Brass always wants to skip the pre-jump fun especially the PLF platform to many of us enlisted slobs correcting them and laughing at them. The pre-jump training is for your safety and everyone else on that aircraft and in the sky.
P.S Airborne is what you do a Paratrooper is who you are!
The VIP crap stops now, says the guy that probably skipped pre-jump last week. Typical Bragg. I remember when hazing became a big issue in the mid 90’s and a Bragg Three Star came on TV declaring not on my watch, same guy that was President of the Board during my Prop Blast a few years earlier as an O-6. Brutal Prop Blast to say the least.
I would LIKE to think that this Colonel’s death will be leveraged to change the culture. However, I’m not holding my breath.
Similar stuff happened in the Navy while I was in, junior folks hesitant to step up and make their concerns known, even when lives were at risk.
Regulations are for the little people.
Yet another reason I didn’t make O-5. I required Flag Officers to sign hand receipts for TA-50. Didn’t trust anyone with my supply room inventory.
In God we trust, all others must sign.
Had sign on the supply room door, “If Caesar wants to run this Cohort, let Caesar sign for the swords and shields.”
“This VIP crap stops now!” Yea, that will last about five minutes.
Very sad. This seems to be a cyclic event at Fort Bragg. Every few years there is some relaxation of the rules, someone dies, then things tighten up again, repeat. I have been retired since 1993 so am not current but we lost six guys on a jump in California in August 1984. Several were dragged by high winds and slammed into trees and vehicles that had been dropped. I remember the old joke about the Drop Zone Safety Officer checking the wind by dropping a steel pot (pre-Kevlar days) in front of him and if it hit the ground between his feet the wind was OK. Another guy was killed when his static line wrapped around his improperly rigged Dragon Missile pack, fouled and set him into a spin, wrapping him in the static lines.
I was a field grade officer at the time and fortunately for me, NEVER experienced shoddy pre-jump training or a slack Jumpmaster personnel inspection. I came home from Desert Storm in 1990 and after not jumping for five years, wanted to jump with my son who was in jump school at Ft. Benning. I got a personal one-on-one refresher course at Fort Bragg that included practicing exits, PLFs and three jumps from the 34-foot tower. I also got a full safety briefing before they would issue me a slip to take to the Airborne School at Ft Benning so I could sit next to my son on a C-141 and jump. The course was not difficult but a bit uncomfortable. It was also very thorough and professional. Not all 48 year old O-6s get a wink and a nod in pre-jump training. Unfortunately for Colonel Wright, he did.
“I am a colonel. Gravity does not apply to me.”
“I am a colonel. You must whitewash my Aviator Annual Proficiency And Readiness Testing”
“I am a colonel. I need not listen to anyone but a general.”
“I WAS a colonel, and commanded troops who did X. Therefore, I am an expert at X and should be hired by your company to do it. Hey, where is my staff to do X?”
Culture.
Square in the black.
Applies equally to all the services.
Bunch of CSM’s have the same attitude.
If anybody can fix that culture, Joe Anderson can. Question is, how long will those corrections last? Until “Smokin Joe” PCS’s?
As a current and qualified jumpmaster, NO ONE gets on my aircraft without being at MY pre jump briefing. If I’m going to be responsible for anything that happens, I’m going to control as much as I possibly can.
Thank you very kindly.
This. The colonel’s hubris killed him, aided and abetted by the leader of the jumpmaster team who didn’t have the stones to do the right thing and scratch him from the jump.
No question from this straight leg.
While stationed at Ft. Lewis in the 2/47 Inf I was attached to Huckleberry Creek Mountain Training Camp at Greenwater WA.
We instructed all types including Marines on mountaineering and other types of mountain movement. I was the guy at the top of the rappelling ropes that had to check to make sure that everything was up to snuff before they went over the side of a 100 ft cliff.
The LT’s were the worst to instruct because they always thought they knew more than we did.
It was a blast and the best job in the US Army, no doubt about it.
What happened to his O-6 “buddies” who also skipped pre-jump and had requested the chutes?
COL Wright was not a jumpmaster, nor had he been in a leadership position with responsibility for executing jump activities, so I might be willing to give him a little bit of a pass for not fully knowing the rules and the 1200 AGL requirement for the MC-6.
Several of his buds who were in on the jump with him from the corps HQ’s did know better, yet also skipped pre-jump and the briefings?
Yes! Thank you. I promise this is not the end for these sentiments.
COL Wright was a senior parachutist. Also, he had been in multiple leadership positions over the years in Airborne units. He was an airborne company commander (C/3-325IN), LRS Detachment commander E-313th MI (LRSD), and battalion commander for 1-509th (ABN) at Ft. Polk. He didn’t willfully skip the pre-jump that day. He should’ve insisted on some when they were sitting at Green Ramp for a couple hours before the jump, yes, but he didn’t skip it because he thought he was better, he was directed to be somewhere else.
I know this will be like throwing gasoline on the fire….but, do we really need the XVIII Corps to be on jump status? What do we gain in quantifiable combat capability by having an entire Corps HQ’s on status?
There is not a single operational/strategic reason that a corp headquarters needs to be on jump status.
We don’t even need a division HQ on jump status.
I had never heard of this parachute, but just watched the youtube video teaching canopy control techniques. Why on earth would the Army use such a parachute? I remember when the MC-1 was introduced, and what a mess occurred every time it was used by more than a half dozen jumpers on a pass. What was wrong with the T-10?