Lawmaker says Congress is partly to blame for rash of deadly military accidents

Molly Riley/AP

Congress is partly responsible for a string of military training accidents that killed two and injured more than 20 troops over the past week, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Friday.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, has blamed spending caps and delayed defense budgets, as well as the newest continuing budget resolution approved this month, for putting military service members at greater risk and said the new incidents at Fort Hood, Texas, Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Fort Bragg, N.C., are the latest evidence.

"Part of the underlying cause of the training and maintenance problems that plague our military is Washington's dysfunctional budget process," Thornberry said in a statement Friday. "We cannot allow that to continue."

Army Staff Sgt. Alexander P. Dalida, 32, was killed and seven others injured Thursday during Army Special Forces demolition training at Fort Bragg. Earlier in the week, Army Staff Sgt. Sean Devoy, 28, was killed during helicopter medevac training at Fort Hood.

Fourteen Marines and one sailor were injured, some critically burned, on Wednesday when their amphibious assault vehicle caught fire at Camp Pendleton.

On Thursday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Thornberry's counterpart on the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the same connection between accidents and budget woes caused in Washington.

"These incidents demonstrate the current over-taxed state of our military both at home and overseas, and the failure of Congress and the president to give our troops the training, resources, and equipment they need," McCain said.

Both Thornberry and McCain are pushing for big hikes in defense spending in 2018 that they say are needed to shore up overburdened and underfunded forces.

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