Parents of missing sergeant blame Marines for accident

The parents of a Hawaii Marine killed in the Jan. 14 crash of two helicopters off Oahu’s North Shore say the CH-53E Super Stallions shouldn’t have been flying because of safety concerns over worn-out Marine Corps choppers.

But beyond that, Mike and Lisa De La Cruz say they are angry and maintain that the Marine Corps wasted lots of time in trying to make a recovery at sea that has yielded remains identifications for nine of 12 aboard — but not their son.

Multiple weeks were lost training divers for dives that never occurred and in replacing a faulty generator on the search ship, said the De La Cruzes, the parents of 24-year-old crew chief Sgt. Dillon Semolina.

The Marine Corps frequently pointed to “unfavorable weather and sea conditions” as also preventing it from searching for the lost air crews and choppers, but the parents said the fact that actual searches occurred over just 17 days out of 84 “is absolutely ridiculous. This should be an embarrassment for the Corps.”

During that time, ocean action was dispersing the wreckage in waters 300 to 340 feet deep and making it harder to retrieve all the Marines, they maintain.

The III Marine Expeditionary Force, the unit’s higher command in Okinawa, Japan, disagreed with the De La Cruzes’ assessment.

“No time was wasted,” said Capt. Cassandra Gesecki, a spokeswoman for the command. “U.S. Navy dive teams immediately supported the initial search and rescue effort and began the underwater search phase, ultimately locating the mishap site.”

Mapping of the debris field continued while “mixed-gas diving preparation” began, Gesecki said in an email statement.

“As more advanced search equipment arrived on island, it was determined that the depth of the mishap wreckage exceeded safe manned diving limits,” she said. “At that point a salvage and recovery capable Remotely Operated Vehicle team was rapidly deployed to support the salvage and recovery effort.”

While one of search ship USNS Salvor’s generators did require repairs, “the largest cause for delay to the effort was the rough winter surf conditions of the North Shore,” she said.

Twelve Marines with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 and Marine Aircraft Group 24 at Kaneohe Bay went down in the two choppers. Witnesses reported seeing a fireball at sea. No mayday call for help was made. The size of the debris field was later described as being several square miles.

Three days before the crash, Lt. Col. Edward Pavelka, commander of HMH-463, was relieved of command.

Higher command had “lost confidence in his (Pavelka’s) ability to continue to lead the squadron,” the Corps said previously. “The Marine Corps holds all Marines, especially commanders, responsible for maintaining complete accountability and responsibility in upholding the highest standards for combat readiness.”

Although the Marine Corps didn’t reveal the reason for the dismissal, Mike De La Cruz, a former Marine Corps crew chief himself, said he found out that HMH-463 had the lowest flight hours of any helicopter squadron across the Corps, meaning the squadron wasn’t combat-ready, and Pavelka was subsequently removed.

But De La Cruz said he also learned Pavelka “refused to fly those helicopters due to safety concerns.”

The Minnesota man provided pictures from a similar two-helicopter CH-53 flight in Hawaii that he said had to make an emergency landing March 5 when a several-foot flap ripped open on the fuselage of one. On another occasion a helicopter’s nose wheel would not retract, he said.

With ongoing maintenance issues, at least one Marine with the squadron surrendered his wings because “he’s too scared to fly,” De La Cruz said. The couple said they are outraged and frustrated.

De La Cruz said it’s “unfathomable” that the Marine Corps would allow the two choppers to fly the night his son was killed. “And on top of that, they are not listening to what we’re trying to bring to the surface.”

“We want to save other Marines’ lives,” he said. “Since this accident there have been other emergency landings in Hawaii, and they will not own up to it or stop this crap from going on.”

De La Cruz said he’s raised the concerns with Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar and Gov. Mark Dayton.

All of HMH-463’s Super Stallions should be grounded for a thorough safety review, followed by a unit-by-unit look at the same helicopters in other units, he said. De La Cruz said the maintenance problems are due to funding shortfalls.

“They don’t have any parts to replace anything, to repair anything of any sort,” he said. “So what they were doing was robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Marine Corps spokesman 1st Lt. Joseph Butterfield said the investigation into Pavelka’s removal “will be comprehensive, but it would be inappropriate to speculate on issues covered by the scope of the investigation or the CH-53 aviation mishap board.”

The Marine Corps in recent years had 12 CH-53Es at Kaneohe Bay. A 2016-2026 Corps-wide aviation plan reported a decrease in flight hours and an “uptick” in mishap rates.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller was asked at a Senate subcommittee hearing last month whether budget cuts led to fatal helicopter crashes and put other Marines at risk, Marine Corps Times reported.

Neller said the CH-53 community was probably the “most challenged” in part because of a shortage of aircraft, but said the Corps planned to put more of the choppers through maintenance and make spare parts more available.

The Virginian-Pilot newspaper obtained an internal Marine Corps report, meanwhile, that said commanders were hamstrung by “unacceptably poor readiness” due to parts shortages, maintenance backlogs and years of wear and tear.

By Jan. 17, three days after the unexplained crash of the two CH-53Es 2 miles off Waimea Bay, “minimal” human remains had been recovered. Lisa De La Cruz said with one exception, bone fragments and small tissue samples were most of what was subsequently located.

As of March 2, nine Marines had been identified through DNA and other means, but she said no trace of her son and two others in his helicopter was found.

A Marine Corps message to the family said that as of March 27 the Salvor was “now complete with salvage and recovery operations.” Neller, the commandant, subsequently ordered one more sweep, which ended April 4, the Marine Corps said.

Lisa De La Cruz would like the Marines to find her son and the two others, but it seems unlikely. Now she has memories of her 6-foot-4, 220-pound son who was a workout “beast” but had a tender heart inside.

“Dillon was our family hero and is missed so dearly,” she said in an email. The family started the Sgt. Dillon Semolina Memorial Scholarship Fund at youcaring.com.

“To continue in walking in Dillon’s footsteps, as he would want us to do, we are working as a family to have scholarships available to students of Delano High School (in Minnesota),” the Web page states.

The Marine always dreamed of becoming a veterinarian or doctor and planned to get out of the Corps and go to school in Salt Lake City in the fall.

“Unfortunately, those plans have come to an abrupt end, but we are going to keep his name going,” the family says on the scholarship site.