BUT THEIR TRANSGENDER AWARENESS TRAINING WAS UP TO DATE: Heartbroken families of fallen Marines, sailor react to failures exposed in tragic AAV sinking investigation.

When a Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicle with 15 Marines and one sailor aboard started sinking off the coast of California on July 30, 2020, no safety boat was in sight.

As the water inside the AAV rose to calf level the vehicle commander went to the top and started waiving the “November” flag ― a blue and white checkered flag indicating a possible sinking, because the ship’s radio communications were down.

The Marine stood waving the November flag for 20 minutes before any neighboring vehicles noticed. As the vehicle was going down, one of the AAV crewman told the infantry Marines in the back to open the rear hatch so they could escape, a slide into the report obtained by Marine Corps Times said.

When the cargo hatch would not open the crewman attempted to open the hatch himself before discovering that the “handle had spun past the open position due to a broken woodruff key,” which delayed evacuation.

Eventually two AAVs moved to help the sinking vehicle. But that quickly made the situation, which was becoming dire, worse.

One of the rescue vehicles hit the sinking vehicle, pushing it broadside into the waves. After one large wave hit, water rushed into the sinking vehicle ― sending it rapidly to the floor of the ocean.
At this point eleven service members were still inside, sinking with their ship in darkness, as the emergency egress lighting had failed. The other five Marines had safely evacuated from the vehicle before it completely sank.

You can’t expect to keep up training and maintenance while also maintaining a full schedule of political indoctrination classes.