Marines punish general over fatal sinking of amphibious vehicle
SAN DIEGO — The highest-ranking Marine officer bearing some responsibility for the fatal 2020 sinking of an amphibious vehicle off the coast of San Diego is being formally disciplined by the Marine Corps, the service said Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Robert Castellvi, who was the commanding general of the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Division at the time of the accident, will not return to his current job as the Marine Corps inspector general. He also received what the Marines described as "adverse administrative action" — that is, he was "personally and formally" counseled by the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David Berger.
Castellvi failed to "properly train the Marines and sailors for whom he was entrusted" and inadequately evaluated the amphibious platoon before it was attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the Marines said.
That platoon — Battalion Landing Team 1/4 — was training for a deployment with the 15th MEU near San Clemente Island off the San Diego coast last summer when an assault amphibious vehicle with 16 troops inside began taking on water.
According to a Marine Corps investigation, the troops on board had not been properly trained to escape the vehicle while in the water and the vehicle commander waited too long — 45 minutes — to order an evacuation. When another AAV made its way to the floundering vehicle, it struck it on the side, tilting the first AAV into an oncoming wave, which poured in through an open escape hatch.
The vehicle quickly sank, killing eight Marines and one sailor. They ranged in age from 18 to 23.
—The San Diego Union-Tribune
Val Demings launches 2022 campaign against Sen. Marco Rubio
ORLANDO, Fla. – Saying she’s ready for a “tough fight,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings of Orlando officially launched her campaign Wednesday to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio next year.
“I know how to get through tough times, and I think we would all agree that we’re in some really tough, unusual times right now,” Demings told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday. “But I’m not afraid of a tough fight."
Rubio has tried to get ahead of Demings’ expected announcement by going on the attack, telling Fox News on Monday, “None of them (Demings and other Democrats) will admit to being a socialist. She probably won’t. But she certainly has voted for socialist things.”
“I am not,” Demings said of Rubio’s socialist allegation. “I have dedicated my life to public service. I spent the overwhelming majority of that time, 27 years, as a law enforcement officer. I served as the chief of police. ... Desperate people will do and say desperate things. And I don’t blame Rubio and the GOP for being very concerned about me running for the United States Senate against Marco Rubio.”
Demings, 64, a former Orlando police chief, had been on President Biden’s shortlist for a running mate last year before he chose Vice President Kamala Harris. She’s married to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a former Orange sheriff and Orlando police chief.
Rubio, seeking his third term in the U.S. Senate, won reelection in 2016 by seven percentage points over Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy and will be a formidable opponent for Demings or any other Democrat in a state that has tilted increasingly more Republican for the past 20 years.
—Orlando Sentinel
Majority of Republicans now support same-sex marriage, poll shows
More than half of Republicans now say that same-sex marriages should be recognized as legal, with the same rights as opposite-sex marriages, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Gallup.
In its latest annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 3-18, Gallup also found that overall, support of legalized same-sex unions continues to increase, reaching an all-time high of 70%.
The figure represents a dramatic evolution of people’s support for gay marriages, in a trend that has pointed upward for the last 25 years.
In 1996, the first year when the organization asked respondents if they supported legal recognition of marriages between same-sex partners, only 27% said yes.
Nearly two decades later, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples in June 26, 2015, support for gay marriage reached 60%.
Support among independents, currently at 73%, is slightly higher than previous years, when it stayed in a 68% to 71% range from 2017 to 2020.
Support among Democrats, historically the biggest supporters of same-sex unions, might have “reached a ceiling for this group, at least for now,” according to Gallup. Its current 83% approval rate is on par with figures from previous years.
The poll also showed growth in approval of same-sex marriages among all age groups, with 84% of young adults, 72% of middle-aged adults, and 60% of older adults saying they should be legally recognized as valid.
—New York Daily News
2 Delta planes run into each other on Atlanta airport tarmac
ATLANTA — Two Delta Air Lines planes with passengers aboard ran into each other late Tuesday evening while on the tarmac at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, officials said.
The incident, which a Delta spokesman described as “low-speed minor contact,” happened about 10 p.m. near the departure gates. One of the aircraft was heading to Pensacola, Florida, and the other was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles.
About 100 customers were aboard the flight to Pensacola, while the Los Angeles flight had about 200 passengers, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. No customers or crew members were injured, he said.
“Our maintenance teams will address the condition of the aircraft and there are no ensuing difficulties to our schedules or operations today,” Durrant said.
The customers impacted by the incident were moved onto other planes, which departed on a delay, officials said.
“We apologize to those customers for the inconvenience and for the delay,” Durrant said.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
