Lawmakers say the Navy has been looking the other way on a potential brain-injury crisis in its cockpits. A scathing new House Oversight Committee report faults the service for failing to seriously examine whether the extreme forces of repeated aircraft-carrier launches and high-G maneuvers are inflicting long-term brain damage on its aviators, despite years of internal warnings, outside reporting, and pilot suicides, reports the New York Times. The panel says the Navy never launched a formal study, didn't put in place monitoring that might have caught injuries, and offers no expanded brain-health care—while insisting there's no problem because none has been documented. It calls for legislation mandating the study and treatment of brain injuries, adds USA Today.
Per the report:
- "Despite credible warnings, external reporting, and internal awareness, the Navy has yet to determine whether the very conditions that define naval aviation may also be causing long-term harm to the pilots who endure them. Instead, it has relied on a system designed to respond to visible injuries, while leaving potential cumulative damage largely unexamined."
One civilian neurologist who saw a pattern of such injuries says the Navy simply stopped sending him pilots after he raised concerns. The report highlights an underground effort: TOPGUN's quiet "Project Odin's Eye" brain-monitoring program, which top Navy leaders only learned about after media coverage. Calling the Navy "well equipped" but unwilling to act, the committee urges Congress to force the Pentagon to create a comprehensive aviator brain-health program, track pilots' exposure to catapult launches and high-G turns in medical records, and fund a long-term study of cumulative effects during and after service. The full House report is
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