Rotors In The Sand by Don Harvel

June 28, 1972, the day I reported to the United Stated Military Academy at West Point, one of our class's first military acts was to subscribe to the Cadet Code of Conduct, swearing not to lie, cheat or steal … nor tolerate among us anyone who does. I also pledged, as a cadet, and later as an officer, to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States. Any future allegiance I incurred fell subordinate to these two. Perhaps that's why I developed an affinity to the flying safety field which resides in a sacred niche within the sphere of flying. At the pinnacle of this citadel of truth resides the accident investigation process … where there is no room or tolerance for politics or innuendo. I accepted the job to investigate the April 9th, 2010 CV-22 Osprey accident with reservations concerning the magnitude of the task and the inherent barriers preventing the collection of evidence a half-a-world away. But I failed to account for the obstacles of full disclosure, politics, and the reluctance of the same entities that assigned me the task, to accept the controversial findings of the investigation. If, at this point, you have read the first few pages of this book looking for an indictment of the government, Air Force, or the contractors who supply weapons of war, put the book back on the shelf … or click "remove" from the digital cart. This is no vendetta, tell-all, hatchet job. This book is about facts and truth. Over a period of five months, the Air Force CV-22 accident investigation board traveled thousands of miles, interviewed over one hundred witnesses, and collected mounds of evidence in an inhospitable environment searching for the reason an Osprey aircraft impacted the ground in the remote desert of eastern Afghanistan. The accident took the lives of four personnel aboard the accident airplane. The following pages chronicle the unpublished and exhaustive investigation process, ending with my opinion of the cause of the Osprey accident on th