A two-star general is among the eight Marine Corps officers charged with misconduct in the alleged falsification of maintenance records for the MV-22 Osprey aircraft, officials said Friday.
Maj. Gen. Dennis T. Krupp, commanding general of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, is charged with dereliction of duty on grounds that he knew or should have known of the falsification, they said.
The announcement was made by Marine Forces Atlantic headquarters in Norfolk, Va. The commanding general there, Lt. Gen. Raymond P. Ayres, Jr., notified the eight officers of the charges against them last week, but their identities were not made public until Friday.
Ayres had given the eight until Friday to decide whether to appear before him for administrative hearings to answer the charges or to ask to move ahead with the first step in court-martial proceedings to challenge the allegations.
Others Facing Charges The Marines announced charges against the following officers, in addition to Krupp:
Col. Laurin P. Eck, former assistant program manager at Naval Air Systems Command, charged with violating a lawful order by failing to report falsification that he observed.
Three officers are charged with dereliction of duty as well as violating a lawful order by failing to report the falsification. The three are Col. James E. Schleining, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 26; Col. Phillip L. Newman, assistant chief of staff for the aviation logistics division at the 2nd Marine Air Wing, and Lt. Col. Demetrice M. Babb, an aviation maintenance officer in the aviation logistics division of the 2nd Marine Air Wing.
Two officers are charged with dereliction of duty: Lt. Col. Odin F. Leberman, who was commanding officer of the Osprey training squadron at New River at the time, and who has since been relieved of command, and Capt. Christopher Ramsey, an assistant aviation maintenance officer in Leberman's squadron.
Leberman and Ramsey also face two other charges: making false official statements and conduct unbecoming an officer.
The eighth officer facing charges in this case is Chief Warrant Officer Matthew W. Smith, the maintenance material control officer in Leberman's former squadron at New River. Smith is charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement. (AP)
Ayres said all eight chose to attend the hearings and not seek a public airing of the evidence against them.
He said the date of the hearings has not been set.
The charges arise from a tape recording of a meeting of the Osprey test squadron in which the squadron commander appeared to suggest maintenance files should be falsified.
The airing of that tape, plus several reports on problems in the testing of the Osprey and two deadly crashes in 2000, put the experimental plane's future in jeopardy.
If any of the accused had refused to attend the hearing, their commander could take a number of actions, including ordering an Article 32 hearing, a more formal procedure often likened to a grand jury proceeding in the civilian justice system.
The charges include violation of a lawful standing general order, dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, and conduct unbecoming an officer. Marine spokesman Maj. Bryan Salas said none of the eight officers was charged with all four violations, although some were charged with more than one.
In June, the Pentagon's chief investigator confirmed an allegation that the commander of the Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey squadron, Lt. Col. Odin Fred Leberman, falsified maintenance documents to exaggerate the aircraft's performance record. Leberman was relieved of duty the day the allegations became public in January.
Shortly thereafter, CBS Newsobtained an e-mail message from one Marine commander to another describing some maintenance data as a "bad story" that should be "close-held."
The Pentagon inspector general's investigation also concluded that other Marines knew of the deception but failed to report it.
The Pentagon wants the Osprey — which flies like a plane but takes off and lands like a helicopter — to become its next generation troop-carrying workhorse, replacing aging CH-46 and CH-53 transport helicopters. Each Osprey can carry 24 troops or a 15,000-pound load.
According to the Defense Department, the Marines plan to buy 360 Ospreys for $40 billion in the next 12 years, with the Navy and Air Force picking up an additional 100.
In the past year, the Osprey has been involved in two deadly crashes.
The Paper Trail
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A copy of the e-mail sent from Brigadier General James Amos to Lt. General Fred McCorkle, Deputy Commandant of Marine aviation, last Nov. 21. It discusses some Osprey maintenance data as a "bad story" that should be "close-held."
The letter that tipped investigators off to charges of falsified maintenance data in the Osprey program.
Nineteen Marines died in the accident in April 2000, blamed on a combination of pilot error and a phenomenon known as "vortex ring state" — basically, a stall.
Another four Marines died in a December crash, in which military investigators have thus far determined that hydraulics failure was a key factor.
The Marine Corps has blamed the December crash on the aircraft's computer software and a flaw in the flight control system that it had been aware of for at least 18 months.
After the December crash, the Marines' lone Osprey test squadron has suspended operations and the Pentagon put off a decision to approve the start of full-scale production and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen appointed a review panel.
The review panel of experts said on May 2 that because of serious concerns about the Osprey's safety and design the aircraft should continue in production at a "minimum sustaining level" until changes can be made.
The panel agreed that the Osprey was the best aircraft suited for Marine missions but advised the Pentagon the aircraft needs various repairs and redesign work before it can return to flight.
Troubled Takeoff
The Pentagon launched the effort to build the Osprey in 1982. The first Bush administration canceled the Osprey program in December 1989, citing the program's cost.
But Congress continued to fund the program, and in 1992, then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton promised to support the Osprey. The program was resurrected before Mr. Clinton took office.
Prototype versions crashed in 1991 and 1992, with seven people dying in the second accident.
A 1997 report by the General Accounting Office found that estimates of the cost of each Osprey aircraft varied and that an early test of the aircraft's design was, according to a defense official, "extremely artificial because of significant test limitations."(CBS)
Among the problems cited were a software glitch in the aircraft's computer software and a need to redesign inside the plane's engine casing, where mechanics have found hydraulic problems.
The Pentagon's chief weapons buyer decided in May not to cancel the program but took acquisition authority for the program away from the Navy.
Pete Aldridge Jr. told the Navy to go ahead with buying additional Ospreys, but at the lowest possible rate that ensures the manufacturer can continue to work on improvements to the aircraft. He did not specify what that production rate will be.
In a February report, the General Accounting Office found the Marine Corps skipped some tests of the Osprey to save money and meet deadlines.
Some family members of those killed in the crashes claim the Marines failed to test the plane adequately, and that the manufacturers — Bell Textron Helicopter and Boeing — didn't alert the Corps to safety problems.