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Klutzy-Addition5003 t1_je9mi8o wrote

I remember turning on the news to see a similar article about a military training accident. My ex husband was in the location of the accident and I had known he was training the night prior when the accident happened. I waited for hours crying my eyes out to hear word. He ended up being fine, physically but was traumatized forever after the incident.

It still baffles me that I found out he might be dead from an article like this. We have been divorced for almost 10 years now and I still think about it whenever I see these news stories.

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sessafresh t1_je9zmnq wrote

My wife is a retired Army helicopter pilot and stories like this are absolutely devastating Nine people gone! My heart!

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unlolful t1_jeafn0b wrote

On one of my first trips out to sea on the Abraham Lincoln we were prepping for a future deployment. We had some of the air group on board and we were practicing night ops off the San Diego coast. I had spent enough time listening to the catapults to know how they sound they make. I was lin my bunk and trying to get some sleep/rest which is difficult to do with that shit happening. On deployment you're often so damn tired you learn to sleep thru it. So I'm just laying in the bunk and notice the sound of that catapult wasnt right. A few seconds later and alarms start going off. An F18 was being launched and we had a cold cat situation. Guy never got enough speed to get the plane in the air. He went right into the drink. We spent quite a while searching for him along with other boats in the battle group but I don't think he was ever found. Still live in San Diego and I've talked with some former navy pilots and they all relate. I don't remember the guys name but a lot of those older pilots say they probably knew him.

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