Hopefully OBOGS can get re-engineered with some serious improvements. F-18, F-22, and now T-45 have a history of issues. Poisoning warriors is bad press, but its even worse for combat effectiveness.

F-22 guys did a similar "stand down" for a while, and largely kept it out of media. Eventually word does get out...

Knock on wood, 1000 hours flown on the T-6A poisoning free, though I won't know until many years later if the thing dusted me with carcinogenics imperceptible to my body's allergic reaction threshold. Brings a perverse new meaning to the thank you for my service platitude....

These days I'm back to the relative inconvenience of flying behind the good ol leaking LOX in the mighty Talon, leaving me stranded off station 6-9 times a year, unless I get the OG waiver on the repo flight below 10. And you know what? I love it. The devil I know is much preferable to the one I don't.

Hope they figure out what's going on with the -45 OBOGS so they can get back up to hackin' da mish. everybody stay safe out there.

I'd be very interested to hear from some folks in Kingsville or Meridian on how all of this went down. While I applaud the IPs for taking a stand, the way they went about it, organizing a 'sick out' in a military squadron is just not right. Where were the COs and/or Commodore in this? Why go VFR direct to Fox News and undercut the air boss? Did the IPs talk directly with CNATRA before they did this or did they just take it on their own accord to ORM out as a group? I get that safety comes first and I'm not advocating anything less, I just think there were/are other ways of dealing with this issue to get the visibility it needs (if it's not already in work). Those of us who fly Hornets/Supers know that the Hypoxia/ECS/Pressurization issues are at the top of the list for safety concerns/priorities. To say they are not not, is just flat wrong. If its not being done fast enough, again, I get it and would opine that there are a number of other avenues and ways to get after this problem with leadership to include the air boss (actual) rather than VFR direct to Fox News who only reported what they wanted and put out a TON of misinformation to the public, just my $.02.

Chief of Naval Operations: ""I think what we had more than anything else was a breakdown in communication. And those teams are on-site now working through each of the training wings, they are resolving the differences in perspective and the differences in communication." That's it! What we have here is a............"failure to communicate".

BDGERJMN,

While I agree going to the media is a terrible choice, it seems that the CoC completely let them down.

Did CNAF know about this? The IPs... the experts in the field... DID push these issues up the CoC... and they got stonewalled.

Where?

The IP cadre filed safety reports until the cows came home. They briefed their commanders and the Commodore. Apparently, the info was forwarded to Corpus. It sure sounds like this steaming pile lays at the feet of CNATRA. How does he get briefed on all of these incidents, and yet he doesn't run the plethora of fleet-safety information further up the chain?

Kind of interesting how now this is CNATRA's #1 priority. Too bad it wasn't 6 months ago. It took a beating to make it so.

I don't know Admiral Bull, but from those I do know that know him, their description matches well to what has happened.

If my conclusions are correct, then CNAF needs to send CNATRA packing.

Everything Huggy said. They did the last thing they could to fix this issue. The T-45 OBOGS incidents were becoming much more frequent and much more serious than any Hornet OBOGS issue. Being privvy to some inside information on the issue, it's a **** storm of epic proportions and if the working theory turns out to be true CNATRA should not only be fired but stripped of everything for not acting.

No one went to the news, it gained traction mainly because the VPs son is there.

We lost people to the OBOGS issue in the Hornet community you'll remember. :(

I'm not keeping track since I left, but did the T-45 community have Class As associated with OBOGS?

Also - when I left - they were just implementing the 'Air Quality' caution annunciator in the Hornet fleet (I don't remember what the ann was actually - maybe air concentration?). Did that not happen or not work?

My post wasn't intended to point fingers at all, simply stating that I disagreed with the way the instructor cadre went about it, and asking some tough questions. What's done is done and it's time to move forward. As a CO, I understand both sides of the leadership coin, those COs and Commodores were/are definitely in a tough position and I'm not in their shoes; I don't envy their position. I hope that through all of this, the culprit is found and these airplanes/systems can be fixed and get back to training the future in Naval Aviation.

USMC - there is an OBOGS DEGD caution on the DDI which you are familiar with. A CABIN (on lower right cautions panel, not DDI) caution was installed as part of the Cabin Pressurization Warning System (A-D AFC 466, E/F ECP 6217) and put in place in Legacy/Super hornets to let aircrew know the cabin altitude is above 21000' +/- 1100'. I can't speak to the OBOGs/CABIN PRESS cautions in the T-45.

What didn't you like about the way the instructors went about it? I didn't see any USN O-3s on the news. They refused to fly the plane, Lt Pence is there, the news got a hold of it.

Because I don't feel that organizing a 'sick out' in a military squadron then interviewing with Fox News was the appropriate way to do it. As I stated, I personally feel there were other avenues of approach, again my opinion. You didn't see any O-3s on Fox News because they were unnamed sources quoted in the article and on TV. Pence being there was ancillary and helped the media with some sound bites, not the thrust of the story.