Lt. Col. Taylor White canned
According to Military.com, Lieutenant Colonel Taylor White, the commander of the Marine Wing Support Squadron 274 at Cherry Point, North Carolina was fired by his boss Major General Matthew Glavy for his “loss of confidence” in White’s ability to lead;
The wing has recently been linked to two significant aviation mishaps.
On July 10, a KC-130 that took off from Cherry Point crashed in Mississippi, killing all 16 Marines aboard. A day later, lightning struck a flightline in nearby New River, fatally injuring one MV-22 Osprey maintainer and sending another briefly to the hospital.
A spokeswoman for 2nd MAW, 2nd Lt. Monica Witt, said MWSS-274 had not had any involvement in either incident and that White’s relief was unrelated. The specifics of why he was relieved have not been made available.
Category: Marine Corps
Conduct unbecoming?
Negative chooee lee, they probably caught him in public without two road guards and someone to count Cadence. I guess that may qualify as conduct unbecoming for a Marine, who knows.
Why would any CoC have Personnel in an open area such as a flightline when there’s lightning?
NAVOSH is pretty clear on it, and when in doubt, refer to OSHA regs. No reason for them to have been out there.
They have Thunderstorm conditions in the Aviation world, Safety calls every squadron to let them know what level it is and the ASDO log it. Call M/C to let them know the level to get everyone off the flight line, been like that for my 20 years no matter what squadron I was in.
His retirement papers are probably already at CMC pending approval.
Along with the new “Mandatory for all EM” power point presentation.
Cheerless Pit, Havenot NC…its a career graveyard.
They had received the “lightning within 5 miles warning” and were leaving the area to go indoors when it happened.
I was wondering about that. Thx.
I’ve worked with clients whose policy is 30 miles.
And yeah, there is such a thing as clear sky lightning. 5 miles is way too close.
Some years back there was a Scoutmaster killed by “clear sky” lightening (over the horizon storm) while waiting for chow at a Scout summer camp.
Hard to take cover when in the wilderness at times like that.
I think the 5 miles may be standard. Here at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson they also give the warning at 5 miles.
“There but for the grace of God go I”
I was in Ft Bragg when lightening was several miles away to the south. I was having my comm guys (I was the S-6 for our regiment) take down are 100 ft MRC-142 MUX antenna (complete with metal guy lines). Before we knew it, the lightening was all around us. I was out in the clearing with my guys and we were just finishing up as the lightening came up on us. I was pretty freaking scared with all that lightening, I’m not afraid to admit and had the guys get into some shelter.
I should have had them give it up much sooner, but I didn’t have the extra 12 years of wisdom then that I’ve got know.
Sometimes when you’re young you have more moto than brains. Thank God I never had any loss of life accidents with any of my guys during my time in. [Knocking on wood as I have another 18 months until I retire!]
An AB-500. I couldn’t find any info searching AB-500 online, so that may not be the official name, but that’s what we called it.
Here’s a picture:
https://get.google.com/albumarchive/104745627018165888181/album/AF1QipNXYJbbc7hRQvZNbOZlLMXY_ZzKrLHkcciw0sjH/AF1QipN40iBhvfvpKW9KQ_785izl1tfJb1IuERosaK_O
The TOC heard that we were going to have heavy thunderstorms that afternoon, so the decision was made to move our Movement to Contact mission up a few hours.
Which caused us to be sitting in an open field that was an OP as the storm rolled up the valley. It looked like God was calling for fire.
Hmmm… no details. Curious.
Details will most likely be provided in the comments section of the MarineTimes article if/when it posts. I cannot, however, vouch for the accuracy of any details that show up there or similar locations….
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/north-carolina-based-support-squadron-commander-fired
Waiting for the rumor mill to get up and running….
Yeah, he was probably caught “banging” something, you know “nailing” it … to the wall … like a picture frame.
That’s the ticket, he was putting pretty picture frame on the wall and his boss did not like it!
So if the unit he commands didn’t have anything to do with the high profile mishaps (which as an MWSS they wouldn’t have) why mention it?
For those that don’t know, a Marine Wing Support Squadron is the (more or less) ground support for a Marine Air Group. The MAG has log/supply and maintainers for aircraft in the Marine Air Logistics Squadron (MALS) and within each flying squadron respectively. The MWSS provides an expeditionary airfield capability (less air traffic control), bulk fuel, aircraft firefighting and rescue, airfield comms, weather reporting and a few other functions.
So they pretty much have nothing to do with maintaining aircraft.
My first job (22 years ago this September) was being a 5711 (NBC guy) for MWSS-471, a reserve unit based in Dallas NAS and later NAS, JRB, Ft Worth or the base formerly known as Carswell.
That they have nothing to do with aircraft maintenance does seem to make it odd that Military.com mentioned it.
It’s only odd that the media brought it up, but it’s because they have NOTHING else to say. No facts, no hints, nada.
I enjoy watching them stew over something like this.
I was training out in the field at North Fort Hood, when we got hit by a major rain storm. It took down all the tents and we spent the night in the back of a Deuce and a Half. Good times.