The litany of repeated incompetence is astonishing, and it is terrifying to understand that only luck prevented enormous death and destruction on several occasions. One can have very little confidence in the leadership of the US military once one realizes that these repeated failures of procedure, process, and technology were never properly rectified. No doubt similar errors continue to be committed including the always-denied US responsibility for downing a TWA civilian airliner through accidental launch of a SAM from a US Navy vessel a couple of decades ago.