The Navy’s Elite Topgun Pilot School made an attempt in the fall of 2024 called Project Oden’s eye to try to detect and treat brain injuries among fighter staff members, and the leaders kept it secret. Even the wider navy did not know about it.
Now, a powerful house committee on surveillance and government reforms is demanding to know about the project, and what the Navy knows about the threat that pose the brains of staff members in high -performance jets. They fly in them.
“It is important to make sure that the War Fighter has full and accurate information about health risks and tools to protect health risks and tools,” said James Commer, the chairman of the committee’s representative James Commer, Kentucky. A letter On Thursday, the Navy’s acting secretary was sent.
The letter cited a New York Times report published in December, explaining how several members of the F/A -18 Super Hornet crew, from the Cattle Tech Office for years of airplane carriers. Later, under the crushing of G -forces, suddenly and unchanged, mental health problems. These issues include symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, depression and PTSD-all of these repeated subcutaneous mental injuries.
Many problems began when the aviation was near the end of his career, in the 40s, but the victims often kept their struggle hidden even after leaving the Navy, so that they could fly.
The Navy tells its pilots that there is no evidence that flying pose a risk of brain injury. It remained the official line even after three pilots with symptoms of brain injuries.
But in November, the leaders of the Tapgan – where the best fighter pilot learned aerial dog fighting – quietly adopts Oden’s eye, a mental injury program used by some Navy seals. The move allowed Tapgan to screen his budget with pilots screening and sometimes the sluggish Navy bureaucracy behind.
The Congress letter has demanded what the Navy knows about the potential brain injuries to aerospace members, including all studies and communication about the issue, as well as the airburn injured in the last 10 years. Number data includes.
He also asks why Odin’s eye was born secretly. The letter states that “the Navy’s command cannot be fully aware of its existence,” he said, adding that the situation raises additional questions about the Navy’s potential affairs. Working to reduce a comprehensive and effective way.
“Our Navy invests a lot in these pilots to ensure that they are the best, and we expect the best, but we also want to make sure they take care of them,” said in an interview. Is going. “
Even despite the power of an influential house committee, it can be difficult to clearly see the issue. Symptoms of brain injury are often similar to irrelevant psychological disorders, and many aviation that they experienced said they had never been evaluated by the Navy’s brain injury, so the spread of injuries. There are no counts.
Nevertheless, retired pilots suggest that the problem is not new and have been disabled for decades of high -performing pilots.
Captain Frederick G Ludog Jr., known as Vegas, commanded Tapgan at the late 1980s, when the same blockbuster film was released. The public interest in the Navy pilots was so strong that when he got out of his jet, the crowds sometimes made a red carpet for him.
But a few years later, after 20 years of flying and 1,200 career landing, Captain Ladd Wig started targeting him. He had panic attacks in the cockpit and had to stop flying the only seat plane. While commanding the carrier air group, he suffered a mental malfunction, he survived a Singapore psychological hospital through a window and was missing for a few days.
The Navy gave him electro -shock therapy and quietly retired him in 1995, but his problems worsened, with a mood that swings in the negligent confidence and unacceptable grief. His ability to plan and eliminate the projects abandoned it. In his flying career, he never had any accidents, but as a civilian he became so unorganized and engaged that he was repeatedly joined among the turners.
The brain injury was never estimated. They Died in 2023At the age of 78, the brain is bleeding.
His son said in an interview, “This is very sad.” “He tried and tried and tried for decades to improve, but he could never do.”
Neil Sullivan, known as Sally, who was trained under Captain Lud Wig in Tapgan, blowing naval fighters for 14 years and facing similar problems after 10 years of planes. ۔ At the age of 48, he suddenly created a sweaty and disabled problem.
“I tried to John Vivian for six months, but eventually it became so bad that I had to stop flying,” he said in an interview.
He divorced, turned to alcohol, and then felt unable to work.
Mr Sullivan said, “My life was completely separated, and I could never understand why, who eventually went to recover alcohol and drug use.” For decades, I had been trying to treat it. Which I thought was a psychological disorder, but it is a great opportunity to suffer hundreds of brain injuries. “
He added: “Many of us should be. You just don’t see us. They never make a movie about this part of the story.
It will not be easy to reduce the causes of the problem and its scope. There are no mental scans or blood tests that can detect the unique style of microscope damage due to frequent sub -phrase shocks in a living brain. This can only be seen post -mortem.
Captain William Cattle, A Rear AdmiralThe son of the son, who went alias, was in the first Topgan class in the late 1960s and flew for 24 years. His daughter Melorie Catllett said that in the 40’s, he caused anxiety and sadness, and he often stopped her from being able to leave the house.
He saw similar problems in other pilots of his generation, including a friend of the family. A Rear Admiral – Who, he said, Died by suicide Immediately after retiring.
“This father was crazy of all kinds, and we never really understood why,” he said. “But of course, if you look at it in terms of brain injury, it makes no sense.”
His father struggled for decades, spoiling mood swings and mental functions, and died in January.
His family donated his mind to her The Department of Defense Mental Tissue Storage, An advanced laboratory that studies military injuries related to military injuries, but it has only one fighter pilot’s brain in the reservoir, because of the risk of brain injury to aircraft members Is covered.
“My father and grandfather gave his life to the Navy,” Ms Catllett said. “We wanted to give back.
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