Military investigators found that the contractor improperly installed an air vacuum valve on the system that carries Aqueous Film Forming Foam, used to suppress fires caused by flammable liquids, just inside the underground facility’s Adit 6 tunnel in April 2022.

The same contractor also failed to disable AFFF pumps from automatically starting prior to fire suppression system testing on Nov. 29, 2022, which led to an uncontrolled discharge of the toxic chemicals, investigators found.

The concentrate pooled on the floor inside the facility and then seeped under a door and onto a paved access road, as well as soil on the edge of the paved road outside of Adit 6. Federal firefighters, contractors and government civilians from JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam responded to the site and took actions to contain the release, including the removal of impacted asphalt and soil.

Aqueous Film Forming Foam, which is used to suppress fires caused by flammable liquids, contains perfluorinated chemicals, collectively known as PFAS. These so-called “forever chemicals” have been used across the military to battle aircraft and ship fires, and the Department of Defense has identified 400-500 military sites that have been contaminated by them.

PFAS, which are also found in household items such as nonstick cookware, stain repellents and food wrappers, have been linked to some types of cancer and birth defects, and may also affect growth and development, reproduction, thyroid function, the immune system and the liver.

Notifications of the Red Hill leak were made that same day to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii Department of Health, as well as senior DoD officials, legislators and other stakeholders.

Navy groundwater monitoring sample results in the affected area after the November spill showed no violation of PFAS standards based on state and federal screening levels, Hawaii News Now reported.

Investigators also faulted the Navy’s quality assurance process for failing to identify and correct the improperly installed air vacuum valve in April 2022.

The leak of firefighting foam came almost a year to the day after the late November 2021 leak of jet fuel from the underground storage facility.

Hundreds of families on JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Army’s Aliamanu Military Reservation and Red Hill Housing, reported petroleum odors coming from residential tap water supplied by the Navy water system. About 6,000 people were sickened after drinking the contaminated water.

In all, about 93,000 water system users were impacted, many of whom relocated to temporary housing during the crisis.

Following the fuel spill, the Hawaii Department of Health issued an emergency order requiring the Navy to shut down Red Hill and, in March 2022, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered that the fuel storage facility be defueled and permanently closed.

Austin established Joint Task Force-Red Hill on Sept. 30, 2022, to ensure the safe and expeditious defueling of the facility. Vice Adm. John Wade was selected to command the task force.

After the leak of firefighting foam, Wade appointed Maj. Gen. Richard Heitkamp, deputy commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, to conduct a focused investigation to determine the cause of the leak.

During the Friday press conference to announce the investigation’s findings. Wade said that he believes stricter safeguards and more assertive Navy oversight should have been in place to reduce the risk of this type of mishap.

“I ordered this investigation to determine what caused the accidental release of AFFF concentrate and to reduce the risk of a future mishap,” Wade said, according to a Navy release. “A focused investigation allowed us to effectively determine how and why the release occurred. We used this information to immediately implement risk reduction measures across the entire facility and to notify the Department of Defense of actions that can be taken to further reduce risk in areas outside the purview of JTF-RH.

“The safe and expeditious defueling of Red Hill res our top priority to protect the people and environment of Hawaii.”

Shortly after the leak of the fire suppressant, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command directed that JTF-RH’s mission be expanded from overseeing the defueling to also include implementation of centralized management and safety controls at Red Hill, the Navy release noted. To execute these expanded responsibilities, more than 100 military personnel were added to the task force.

Since then, the task force has established physical control of fuel storage facility, according to the release. It manages the access points and oversees all security screening of personnel seeking to enter the facility. All tenance, repair and environmental remediation contractors who enter must now have a military escort with the knowledge to provide appropriate oversight.

The task force has forwarded its investigation to the Department of the Navy to review possible contractor liability for the inadvertent discharge, according to the release.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has also directed its components to review quality assurance mechanisms in place for oversight of maintenance and repair work by contractors on systems containing hazardous materials, the release states.

In addition, a 30-day review has been directed to: identify sources of HAZMAT or other substances, such as PFAS-containing AFFF, that present risk to human health or the environment; ensure controls are in place to protect the environment; and practice response protocols.

Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command continue to conduct environmental testing as they fully remediate the Red Hill site, the release states.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The pilot ejected safely and was transported to the Osan Air Base Urgent Care Center for evaluation, according to a news release from the 51st Fighter Wing, the host unit at Osan. The pilot is in stable condition and no other injuries, including civilians, have been reported, according to the Air Force and the Yonhap News Agency in Korea. First responders are currently at the scene.

“While we don’t have any additional information yet, we are relieved the pilot safely ejected and there were no other injuries,” said Col. Henry R. Jeffress III, 8th Fighter Wing commander, in the release.

According to local firefighting and police authorities, the accident occurred near Pyeongtaek, 35 miles south of Seoul, according to the news agency.

The jet caught fire after crashing, resulting in the aircraft being mostly destroyed, Yonhap reported.

“The U.S. Air Force will stand up an independent Safety Investigation Board to review all data and evidence related to today’s incident and use that information to determine its cause and prescribe any corrective safety measures to ensure the safety of the F-16 fleet,” Jeffress said.

There were 10 Class A and B mishaps involving U.S. Air Force Fighting Falcons in fiscal 2022, but no deaths, according to data from the Air Force Safety Center. Class A mishaps cause damage totaling at least $2.5 million, the destruction of an aircraft, or the death or permanent total disability of someone involved. Class B mishaps result in between $600,000 and $2.5 million in damage, the permanent partial disability of someone, or the inpatient hospitalization of three or more personnel.

In fiscal 2021, there were three Class A and B mishaps, but one pilot died, according to the center. About three Fighting Falcons have been totaled each year on average for the past decade, according to the center’s data.

Among the crashes in fiscal 2022:

South Dakota Air National Guard’s 114th Fighter Wing had two F-16 fighter jet landing accidents in less than a month. One F-16C went over the edge of the runway upon returning from a training mission May 31, 2022. Another Fighting Falcon skidded off of a Sioux Falls runway upon returning from a routine training mission May 11, 2022, coming to rest nose-down in the grass.

An Oklahoma Air National Guard F-16C fighter jet was destroyed March 23, 2022, when the instructor pilot, who worked at a Texas-based detachment of the 138th Fighter Wing, successfully ejected over Louisiana, sustaining minor injuries. The jet was totaled on impact.

A Taiwanese F-16 fighter jet being flown by a U.S. Air Force pilot was forced to make an emergency crash landing in Hawaii on June 6, 2022, when his landing gear failed.

In December 2019, an F-16 pilot at Kunsan AB ejected near the base while attempting to land. He survived with minor injuries.

The two F-16 fighter squadrons within the 8th Fighter Wing, known as the “Wolf Pack” provide combat-ready F-16 C/D fighter aircraft to conduct air operations throughout the Pacific theater as tasked by U.S. and coalition combatant commanders, according to the Air Force. The squadron performs air and space control and force application roles including counter air, strategic attack, interdiction, and close-air support missions.

On April 4, an upgraded Fighting Falcon rejoined 8th FW operations after about seven weeks away for upgrades. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Post Block Integration Team provided the aircraft with the first wave of 22 modifications designed to improve F-16 lethality to meet the needs of current and future operations.

The primary upgrade was the installation of the APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar with active electronically scanned array and Center Display Unit technology that give the pilot a clearer vision of the threat environment, increasing survivability and accuracy of the weapon system.

Other upgrades included a programmable data generator, new-generation electronic warfare capability, a communications suite upgrade and a modernized mission computer.

“The F-16 is planned to continue service into the 2040′s, so this upgrade is critical to making sure we are keeping pace with the evolving threat environment,” Col. John D. Caldwell, 8th FW vice commander, said in April.

The service owns about 900 F-16C/D airframes, which have flown since the 1980s. Each jet cost $19 million in 1998 dollars, the Air Force said, or more than $30 million now.

— Air Force Times reporter Rachel S. Cohen contributed to this report.

Cooley’s sentence was handed down on the eighth day of his historic trial at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, by Col. Christina M. Jimenez, the senior military judge in the case. She is the chief circuit military judge, Air Force Trial Judiciary, Western Circuit, at Travis Air Force Base, California.

The case marked the first time a military court had issued a verdict in a case involving an Air Force general, as well as the first time sexual assault charges had led to criminal prosecution for an official so high in the chain of command.

On Saturday, Jimenez found the two-star guilty of one specification of the charge of abusive sexual contact for forcibly kissing the victim in a car after a barbeque in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Aug. 12, 2018. Cooley was found not guilty of two other specifications of the charge under Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

He had faced a maximum punishment of dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, confinement for seven years and a possible spot in the national sex offender database.

The victim agreed to be publicly identified by her relationship to the defendant, but not by name. Air Force Times does not publish the names of sexual assault victims without their permission to protect their privacy. The woman and her husband — an Air Force civilian employee — as well as Cooley’s mother and several other family friends and expert witnesses testified in the trial, which began April 18.

Both the government and defense presented evidence during the sentencing session Monday. Lead trial counsel, Lt. Col. Matthew Neil, offered an unsworn statement of the impact the assault had on the victim and her family.

“Bill robbed me of my safety, objectified me, disrespected me and my family, and forever destroyed all trust I ever had in him,” she said. “I was unable to trust the man my husband considered his closest brother, friend and confidante with my own safety and well-being.”

Though she “hoped and prayed for true contrition and lasting remorse” from her brother-in-law of about 30 years, she said she didn’t feel that she received it.

Cooley apologized Monday to both family and fellow airmen.

“I can honestly say I have come out a better human being than I was in 2018,” Cooley said, according to the Dayton Daily News. “I will work for the rest of my life to be a better person than the one who was portrayed in this trial.”

After court Tuesday, Neil said the sentence Cooley received sent a message.

“If this result influenced just one survivor to know that his or her attacker’s rank or status would not prevent them from being held accountable, that is a win for the United States and the military justice system,” Neil said.

Like all airmen convicted at a court-martial, Cooley will receive an automatic review on appeal.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed the federal lawsuit in May 2019 on behalf of an Air Force veteran against Alfred Montoya, the director of the Manchester VA Medical Center, seeking the removal of a Bible on display at a POW/MIA table within the hospital. The display violates the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause, according to the lawsuit.

A second Air Force veteran joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff in October 2019.

The table, usually set up near military dining facilities, is set for one person and features a white tablecloth, single rose, a lit candle and more. In some displays, a Bible is also displayed on the table.

The lawsuit said the table should be a memorial to all missing or fallen veterans, not just Christians. The veterans had suggested replacing the Bible with a Book of Faith containing the writings and prayers from seven religious groups. Government lawyers argued the lawsuit should be dismissed, saying some of the allegations were vague and undefined, and that the lead plaintiff acknowledged he wasn’t offended by the display. The matter then went to mediation.

Generic Book of Faith

“One of the focuses was us putting up our own table,” attorney Lawrence Vogelman, who represents the veterans, said at a hearing in requesting the dismissal. He said the VA has a specific procedure for requesting a table and would negotiate the details with the hospital’s lawyers in an effort to avoid any more litigation.

“I think that we’re close enough, or hopefully we are, and in the event it doesn’t work out, then you’ll see us again, but I am very optimistic,” Vogelman said to the judge.

Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is also representing the Air Force veterans who filed the lawsuit. He said the table, which MRFF is sponsoring, would have the American flag draped on it and contain a published, generic Book of Faith. A granite stone would display the opening words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

“We want them to honor them all,” he said.

An attorney representing the hospital director did not object to the voluntary dismissal request and agreed it would be fine for the veterans to use the hospital’s procedure for the display of the additional table.

U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro approved of the idea and noted that it doesn’t involve any necessary change to the current missing man table.

Barbadoro told Vogelman that from the beginning, “I’ve had some confusion about exactly how to conceptualize your claim.” He said he thought it would be better poised for resolution if it were a “restricted or limited public forum case, rather than a government speech case.”

Weinstein said MRFF is now waiting to see if the VA will approve and display its proposed table. If not, the group plans to swiftly refile its lawsuit, he said.

A base press release said more details would be forthcoming after the airman’s next of kin were notified, but that local U.S. and Japanese responders were on the scene. The cause of death is currently unknown and under investigation.

“Our heart and prayers go out to the friends and family of our teammate who tragically passed away today,” said Col. Jesse Friedel, 35th Fighter Wing and Misawa installation commander, in the news release. “To all of Team Misawa, I ask that you please take a moment to care for one another as we work though this heartbreaking discovery.”

A post on the air base’s official Facebook page urged airmen to look out for each other.

“If someone you know needs help please look out for them,” the post stated. “If you need help please reach out to a friend, a wingman, your chain-of-command, or any of the helping agencies we have on base.”

The 35th Fighter Wing is the host unit at Misawa, the northernmost U.S. air base in Japan. It is the only combined, joint service installation in the Western Pacific.

The body of Airman 1st Class Camden Mello was discovered Friday morning after an intensive search that began the night before, said Col. Jason Camilletti, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, in a post on the wing’s Facebook page Friday afternoon.

Mello was an assistant crew chief with the 748th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, according to a 48th Wing news release in December 2020 that detailed some of his personal struggles on his first overseas deployment. The squadron maintains F-15 fighter aircraft.

“We first learned he was missing Thursday night and through last night and this morning we put an all-hands-on-deck approach to find our missing teammate,” Camilletti said in his message to the wing’s airmen. “This morning we found him dead, and we believe he took his own life.”

Mello, who was “inspired by his family’s military lineage,” left for Air Force Basic Military Training in late 2019, according to the 2020 news release.

“I’ve wanted to join the military since I was ten years old,” he said. “Both of my parents are Navy veterans, and each of my grandfathers served in the Army National Guard and Air Force, respectively.”

But the young airman struggled when he arrived in England.

“I lost my mother a week after my arrival at Royal Air Force Lakenheath,” Mello said in the release. “It was also the first time I had been separated from my wife since college.”

Facing a first deployment, separation from his wife, the loss of his mom and the additional burden of COVID restrictions, he struggled.

“I never would have foreseen what had happened to me,” Mello said. “I’ve had to rely on my core group of friends, and they’ve gone through hell and back with me.”

Camilletti offered his condolences to Mello’s wife, his father and family in Massachusetts and the airmen of the 448th AXMS. “Our arms are wrapped around you,” he said.

He also spoke directly to his airmen.

“I just want to say something about resiliency,” he said. “I know that word is overused, so let’s throw it out. Let’s talk about real life. Let’s talk about the challenges we all have.

“Let’s talk about the fact that two hours ago, I was bawling in my car over Camden’s loss,” he said. “This stuff is real, and we’re living overseas in the COVID era. When there’s two-thirds darkness, one-third day, and all the other life stressors. It’s natural to feel down sometimes. It’s a part of the process. Keep battling. My goodness, please keep battling.

“We love you so much. You mean so much to the world,” Camilletti. “And please, please do not make a permanent decision in a temporary situation. Alright? We’re all here for you. You have teammates all over this place. Please, alright? We love you.”

In a heart-rending message on Facebook, Mello’s wife, Lauren, promised to “be strong.”

“Hug your loved ones everyday,” she wrote, “and tell them how much you love them because you never know how much longer you have with them.”

Second Lt. Anthony D. Wentz, 23, of Falcon, Colo., a student pilot with the 47th Student Squadron, was killed in the mishap on a runway of the Texas base.

Wentz was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Two other pilots were injured, one critically, in the accident Friday.

The pilot in critical condition was airlifted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, the 47th Flying Training Wing said in a Friday evening release. The other injured pilot was treated and released from Val Verde Regional Medical Center in Del Rio, where the base is located along the border with Mexico.

“A loss such as this affects us all, but one thing we never fail to do in times of crisis is come together, support one another, and respond,” said Col. Craig Prather, 47th Flying Training Wing commander. “Our focus remains on supporting the families involved and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them and our teammates today.”

In a May 2016 article about Falcon High School students who had been accepted to military academies, which appeared in in The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Wentz said he was eager to join his brother, who was finishing his freshman year at West Point.

“One of the perks is that it’s free,” Wentz said. “You get a paycheck every month and a really good education.”

Wentz’s father was in the Air Force, according to The Gazette. At the time the story was published, Wentz wanted to study mechanical engineering, like his brother, and become an Apache helicopter pilot.

“I’ve always wanted to serve in the military,” he said.

The Air Force hasn’t disclosed information about the circumstances of the accident, which occurred around 10 a.m. Friday and is under investigation.

Laughlin hosts the 47th Flying Training Wing, one of the service’s three hubs for teaching American airmen the basics of flight.

Nearly 3,000 employees run specialized undergraduate pilot training for around 500 students from the U.S. and allied countries each year using the T-1A Jayhawk, T-6A Texan II and T-38C Talon.

When the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees square off for a baseball game on the “Field of Dreams” in Iowa Thursday evening, they will be welcomed by a four-ship flight of A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.

The Warthog pilots, assigned to the 303rd Fighter Squadron, took off from Whiteman Air Force Base Wednesday and headed to Dyersville, Iowa, for a flyover before the 6 p.m. EDT nationally televised game on Fox.

What’s more, all four pilots hail from Iowa themselves or have family from what fans of the 1989 blockbuster movie know to be “heaven.”

Capt. “Pistol” Rindels is from Waterloo, Maj. “Zero” Carlton from Sioux City, Maj. “Jewcy” Berry from Des Moines, and Lt. Col. “Deuce” Siems from Dewitt.

More than three decades after “Field of Dreams” seeped into the country’s cultural consciousness, with a one-year delay caused by the pandemic, one of the most famous cornfields in Hollywood history finally gets the opportunity to host real major league ball.

“Is this heaven?” the ghost of John Kinsella asked in the movie that inspired the game to be played Thursday next to the actual site used in the 1989 film, which is maintained as a tourist attraction.

“No, it’s Iowa,” dutiful farmer Ray Kinsella — played by Kevin Costner — responded to his father with a smile before they played catch under the lights in the movie’s most poignant scene.

This week, the ball playing isn’t fiction.

The proud and quintessential Midwestern state, usually only in the spotlight every four years during presidential campaigns, will be hosting a Major League Baseball game for the first time when the White Sox and Yankees play at a temporary venue built for about 8,000 fans in tiny Dyersville

The event, part of MLB’s increased effort to grow the game by setting up shop in places without in-person access to the highest level of the sport, has been in the works for years. The original plan to play in 2020 was postponed when the coronavirus forced a shortened schedule at mostly empty ballparks, but if the White Sox, the Yankees or the Iowans became impatient then they were out of step with the spirit of the film.

“The one constant through all the years,” as the sage author Terence Mann declared to Ray Kinsella in the film, “has been baseball.”

— Associated Press Sports Writer Dave Campbell contributed.

Lt. Col. James C. Willis, 55, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was found dead at 7:30 a.m. June 26 at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, according to a U.S. Air Forces Central news release. The noncombat-related incident is under investigation.

Willis commanded the New Mexico Air National Guard’s 210th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers out of Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. The unit deployed for missions in Southwest Asia on April 16, according to a 150th Special Operations Wing news release at the time.

While deployed, Willis was a member of the 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron.

“The RED HORSE and engineer communities here are mourning the loss of one of our own,” said Col. Clifford Theony, 1st Expeditionary Civil Engineer Group commander. “We have put every resource available to supporting James’ friends, family and the unit as a whole during this most difficult time. He was a valued member of our team, and will be deeply missed.”

Prior to his current assignment, Willis commanded the 150th Civil Engineer Flight where he had responsibility for New Mexico Air National Guard facilities and the Domestic Prime Power mission. Before that he served as environmental officer for the 150th.

A 1993 graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California, where he majored in electrical engineering, Willis received his commission from Officer Training School in 2002. He has deployed to contingencies in Israel, the Republic of Korea, the United States Virgin Islands, and numerous locations in the United States for construction projects, disaster relief, and weapons of mass destruction training and response.

“The New Mexico National Guard is saddened to learn of the loss of Lt. Col. James Willis,” the Guard said in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

Both U.S. Air Force active-duty pilots on board “ejected safely and sustained only minor injuries,” according to U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek. The airport is just northeast of Scott Air Force Base.

The Eagle had recently been accepted by the U.S. Air Force from the Boeing Co., Stefanek said in a statement. “The aircraft was slated to be transferred to the Qatari Air Force through the Foreign Military Sales program. The incident is currently under investigation.”

The mishap occurred at about 7:30 a.m., a Boeing official told KMOV4, the CBS TV affiliate in St. Louis. “The two pilots were taken for treatment, where both were expected to be okay,” the station reported.

The State Department approved the sale of F-15QA planes to Qatar in November 2016. At the time, the Qatari deal, coupled with the approval of a sale of Super Hornets to Kuwait, was considered a coup for Boeing, which manufactures both planes and was banking on foreign sales to extend the life of its fighter jet lines into the 2020s. The Eagle is manufactured at Boeing’s St. Louis plant.

The $12 billion deal with Qatar, inked in 2017, included 36 aircraft, their associated weapons systems, U.S.-based training, maintenance support equipment, and logistics support, among other items. The first aircraft are being delivered this year.

“The [Qatari air force] will send pilots and weapon system operators to the U.S., where the aircrews will learn how to independently operate the F-15QA ahead of receiving their new aircraft,” Boeing said then of the pre-delivery training contract, according to a flightglobal.com report in November 2020. “Training will include in-person instruction, simulation events and flying operations and will be held near Boeing’s F-15 production facility in the U.S. through mid-2021.”

Boeing will establish and run an aircrew and maintenance training center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which will be operated through 2024, flightglobal.com reported.

The U.S. Air Force’s new F-15EX aircraft is based on the QA. Boeing has delivered the first of 144 Eagle IIs to the Air Force, and the first squadron is expected to become operational in 2023.of those fighters is scheduled to come online in 2023.

Defense News reporters Valerie Insinna and Aaron Mehta contributed to this report.