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The Navy Department has issued letters of censure to five military officers, including a retired three-star general, in response to a disaster at sea that killed eight Marines and a U.S. sailor, officials said Monday.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, who oversees the Navy and Marine Corps, took punitive action after reviewing a military investigation into the sinking of an amphibious assault vehicle off the coast of California in July 2020. The investigation found that insufficient training, the complacency of Navy officers. , and a backward and chaotic rescue effort contributed to the nine deaths.
Del Toro censured some officers who were fired from their jobs shortly after the collapse, but extended the guilt to include Lieutenant General Joseph L. Osterman, who was about to resign and retire the day disaster struck. Osterman was “responsible for mitigating the risks inherent in operations and training,” Del Toro wrote, and “did not fully appreciate the potential negative impact” of the coronavirus pandemic on the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was under his command.
“The Marine Corps requires its leaders to carry out their mission, even in seemingly insurmountable circumstances,” Del Toro wrote in his letter to Osterman on Sunday. “You have not been able to identify and mitigate the human, material and training errors caused by this mishap. command “.
The Marine Corps’ deadly disaster at sea was “tragic” and “preventable,” according to the investigation
Other censored officers include Marine Colonel Christopher Bronzi, then an officer in command of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit; Navy Captain Stewart Bateshansky, who oversaw an amphibious task involved; Navy Captain John Kurtz, then an officer in command of the USS Somerset; and Lieutenant Colonel Keith Brenize, then commander of the 3rd Assault Amphibious Battalion. They all had leadership roles and Kurtz oversaw the ship from which the vehicle was launched while at sea.
Navy Captain Jereal Dorsey, a spokesman for Del Toro, said in an email that the secretary decided to make the decision after a “careful review of the command’s investigations and discussions with senior leaders” in the Department. the Navy.
Censored officers could not be contacted immediately for comment.
The Marine Corps previously found that the 35-year-old armored vehicle, designed to bring Marines ashore in combat, suffered numerous leaks and came from a fleet of vehicles that was in poor condition. The strains created by the pandemic complicated the training schedules of the Marines involved, the service found.
Among the dead was Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra, 18, of Corona, California; Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21, of Montebello, California; PFC. Evan A. Bath, 19, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin; Navy Hospital Christopher Gnem, 22, of Stockton, California; PFC. Jack Ryan Ostrovsky, 21, of Bend, Oregon; Lance Cpl. Guillermo S. Perez, 20, of New Braunfels, Tex; Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd, 23, of Harris, Tex .; Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood, 18, of Portland, Oregon; Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21, of Riverside, Calif.