Missing Marine Pilot Who Ejected off Japan Coast Confirmed Dead

[onebyone]

RIP

 

[onebyone]

A U.S. Marine pilot who ejected from an F/A-18 fighter jet off the eastern coast of Japan has been confirmed dead after being recovered earlier on Thursday by a Japanese naval vessel, military officials said.

The Marine Corps identified Captain Jake Frederick as the pilot who ejected from his F/A-18C+ fighter aircraft after it went down 120 miles off the coast of Iwakuni, Japan.

The Japanese Defense Ministry had announced earlier in the day that a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ship had recovered Frederick.

"He is pronounced deceased," Marine Corps said in a statement today. "We will provide more releasable information after the 24-hour window. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the pilot. The cause of the crash is still unknown."

A timeline posted on the Japanese ministry's website indicated that the missing pilot was spotted at 1:05 a.m. ET by the 71st Air Division and rescued five minutes later.

Frederick was taken to the base at Iwakuni, Japan, officials said, but no details of the pilot's condition were provided.

Initial efforts to locate Frederick on Wednesday proved unsuccessful leading U.S. and Japanese officials to broaden the search radius and increase the number of search assets.

A search-and-rescue operation was launched on Wednesday after Frederick ejected from his F/A-18 aircraft during a scheduled training mission.



Search Underway for Marine Pilot Who Ejected Near Japanese Coast


Frederick had ejected at about 4:40 a.m. ET, 120 miles southeast of Iwakuni, Japan, according to Marine Corps Base Camp Butler in Okinawa. The F/A-18 was assigned to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa and was conducting "regularly scheduled training at the time of the mishap," Marine Corps Base Camp Butler said.

Another F/A-18 fighter that was flying alongside Frederick's aircraft remained in the area until it had to leave because it was running out of fuel, officials said.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Wednesday that a number of U.S. and Japanese air and surface vessels were involved in the search-and-rescue efforts.

The USS Montford Point, an expeditionary Transfer Dock, was searching the area and the guided missile destroyer USS Wilbur Curtis was moving to the search area, officials said at the time the search-and-rescue efforts were launched.

Three Japanese ships and multiple Japanese fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft also assisted in the search, officials said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

https://gma.yahoo.com/missing-marin...st-status-174002838--abc-news-topstories.html

 

[WebMaster]

The ocean is vast and hard to search in mishaps like these. RIP.

 

[IndoUS]

RIP, hopefully the cause of crash is identified quickly.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

RIP

 

[Shotgunner51]

It's terrible to hear such accident, may the deceased rest in peace.

 

[Jugger]

RIP, i have tremendous respect for soldiers of any nation. Sadly Death is the ultimate and final level of peace.

 

[TaiShang]

Also I do agree with you that those who serve in the military deserve all the respects even though they are your enemy.

I agree that Individuals and individual tragedies deserve sympathy, but not respect if the respect is going to be directed at the institutions they represent.

US presence in Japan as an institution and security regime deserves neither respect nor sympathy in any sense because it is a hostile presence to China's national interests.

So, it is better to distinguish individual tragedy from institutional representation. Sympathy toward a person cannot be automatically ascribed toward a sympathy to an institution if it is an invasion force with serious negative social, moral, security and economic impact on the lands it is present.

I am telling this with Okinawa in mind.

How could one show respect to it just because those people are somehow engaged in state sanctioned use of lethal force?

 

[Shotgunner51]

Stay on topic, do not politicize, and be respectful to military professionals (of any nation, China & US included) carrying out their duties.

 

[TaiShang]

Yes, the dead solider himself should be respected.
But not his military uniform and the immoral mission he was involved into.

If one ever makes the mistake of respecting the US military as an institution (I have no intention to judge the persons that make up that institution as I know none of them except a few ex soldier Latino students in my MA class who did rotations in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I can speak of the institutions and regimes), if needs to remember the long historical context.

Certainly, morality cannot be sought in international politics so I do not blame a military institution for being a military institution.

But I definitely object to moral championship.

There is no moral involved and this is the nature of the business if one is an nation-destroying and building institution.

I am qualified to talk about this since I have done on site research on Okinawa US military base issue and the violence (abductions, rapes, killings, decaying social and economic institutions) that ensues.

The level of destruction on the moral and material in the island is beyond description.

Hence, definitely, RIP to any person who dies tragically while trying to earn a living. But, no sympathy with the institution and regime.