1 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:09,790 - The lengthy report from the Marines on the accident that killed nine people last year 2 00:00:09,790 --> 00:00:14,080 on a training mission off the California Coast chronicles a long chain of failures that culminated 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:16,230 in the sinking of an amphibious assault vehicle. 4 00:00:16,230 --> 00:00:21,910 Bad equipment, poor training, and a lack of experience 'doomed this crew and its passengers 5 00:00:21,910 --> 00:00:23,700 to preventable tragedy.' 6 00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:27,590 While we dig into the details of that roughly 2000-page examination, Marine Corps Times 7 00:00:27,590 --> 00:00:31,091 reached out to the families of those killed last July to hear some of what they had to 8 00:00:31,091 --> 00:00:34,090 say about what they learned from the report. 9 00:00:34,090 --> 00:00:35,930 - Those boats were not sea-worthy. 10 00:00:35,930 --> 00:00:43,630 They were junk and they shouldn't even have been put in the water. 11 00:00:43,630 --> 00:00:48,800 - They murdered my son, whoever has this authority to send these boys out. 12 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,204 I feel like that day they said, you know what? 13 00:00:52,204 --> 00:00:53,204 It's your day to death. 14 00:00:53,204 --> 00:01:00,910 - They were failed from the minute these were chopped into service to the minute it sank. 15 00:01:00,910 --> 00:01:02,850 - Every person should be held accountable. 16 00:01:02,850 --> 00:01:05,570 They all had a hand in this. 17 00:01:05,570 --> 00:01:07,810 They all had a hand in this 18 00:01:07,810 --> 00:01:14,210 - I spoke to the family of private first class, Bryan Baltierra, who related some gut-wrenching 19 00:01:14,210 --> 00:01:18,649 details of their son's last moments and talked about how the report left them with unanswered 20 00:01:18,649 --> 00:01:19,649 questions. 21 00:01:19,649 --> 00:01:24,119 - [Carlos] My son, you know, he told me that the track is smoking. 22 00:01:24,119 --> 00:01:25,119 We stopped. 23 00:01:25,119 --> 00:01:27,659 You know, we need to find out what's going on. 24 00:01:27,659 --> 00:01:33,020 And then a couple hours later, my son says, dad, dad we're going to take a dip in the 25 00:01:33,020 --> 00:01:36,030 ocean now. 26 00:01:36,030 --> 00:01:42,109 And that was my last communication with Bryan. 27 00:01:42,109 --> 00:01:46,459 - [Evelyn] It was hard. 28 00:01:46,459 --> 00:01:49,529 It was hard to see what the boys went through. 29 00:01:49,529 --> 00:01:52,539 That our Bryan, we know him. 30 00:01:52,539 --> 00:01:55,450 We know how he's like. 31 00:01:55,450 --> 00:01:58,359 You know, he was 18. 32 00:01:58,359 --> 00:02:04,179 He's kind of goofy, you know, 18 you know, boy. 33 00:02:04,179 --> 00:02:07,289 I know he would've been in panic. 34 00:02:07,289 --> 00:02:11,880 The survivors were telling us that, what really got us was when everything was in chaos. 35 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:20,430 Evan and Bryan were praying together because they knew that's all they had in the darkness. 36 00:02:20,430 --> 00:02:25,200 They were praying together because they knew they couldn't make it. 37 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:27,790 They weren't going to make it. 38 00:02:27,790 --> 00:02:37,000 - I'm looking at the US military, the Marines, the Navy and also the manufacturer of the 39 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:38,000 AAV. 40 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,700 This was a 49-year old vehicle. 41 00:02:40,700 --> 00:02:47,040 I want Congress to pull into the military, the United States Marine Corps and start asking 42 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:52,430 questions, these very difficult questions of what happened to these nine boys. 43 00:02:52,430 --> 00:02:53,430 What happened? 44 00:02:53,430 --> 00:02:54,430 Why? 45 00:02:54,430 --> 00:03:02,859 And I think this will have to be explained by them why did this occur? 46 00:03:02,859 --> 00:03:06,730 - I also talked to the mother of private first class, Evan Bath who said the amount of mistakes 47 00:03:06,730 --> 00:03:09,560 that led to the death of her son were unbelievable. 48 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:19,409 - [Bath] Bryan I think that my son should not have died. 49 00:03:19,409 --> 00:03:24,609 My son should still be here. 50 00:03:24,609 --> 00:03:35,450 The number of mistakes, the lack of training, it should never have happened. 51 00:03:35,450 --> 00:03:39,400 The lack of accountability is unacceptable. 52 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:55,700 If you number the sheer number of mistakes, the sheer number of training exercises that 53 00:03:55,700 --> 00:04:06,999 our son should have had access to at the beginning, the number of mistakes that were made that 54 00:04:06,999 --> 00:04:08,560 day, it is beyond 55 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:12,900 - The family of Lance Corporal Sweetwood said a sequence of the stakes in the report read 56 00:04:12,900 --> 00:04:15,930 like the description of a murder. 57 00:04:15,930 --> 00:04:20,139 - You look clear from March, you look clear from the beginning and, 58 00:04:20,139 --> 00:04:21,670 - It was bad. 59 00:04:21,670 --> 00:04:24,810 - it was bad from every single person down they failed. 60 00:04:24,810 --> 00:04:29,070 They failed, they failed, they failed going down that line. 61 00:04:29,070 --> 00:04:36,310 And I shouldn't say this because it sounds horrible but I've told my husband has several 62 00:04:36,310 --> 00:04:37,670 times. 63 00:04:37,670 --> 00:04:40,650 It's almost like when you go to create a murder. 64 00:04:40,650 --> 00:04:43,590 First day, you go out and you buy the tape. 65 00:04:43,590 --> 00:04:47,480 Second day, you go out and buy the car that you're going to commit the murder in. 66 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:48,900 And day after day after day, 67 00:04:48,900 --> 00:04:50,160 - Just building up. 68 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:51,990 - you're building out to do this murder. 69 00:04:51,990 --> 00:04:56,190 This is exactly what, and this is why I say my son was murdered. 70 00:04:56,190 --> 00:04:57,910 And I mean that. 71 00:04:57,910 --> 00:05:06,420 Because you clear from the beginning had red flag, red flag, red flag then they die. 72 00:05:06,420 --> 00:05:10,480 They're waiting for the report and they tell you, we're coming with this report. 73 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:16,240 At first, you're thinking, okay, maybe there's five things that went wrong, maybe there were 74 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:18,000 10 things that went wrong. 75 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:19,000 You're looking at 76 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,800 - I don't even know. 77 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:22,820 I haven't encountered 78 00:05:22,820 --> 00:05:28,030 - astronomical amount of failures here, of things that weren't there. 79 00:05:28,030 --> 00:05:31,480 - From command to mechanical, it was just terrible. 80 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:32,480 Nobody. 81 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:39,580 I mean, if this is how we're going to fight wars, we might as well not even do this anymore. 82 00:05:39,580 --> 00:05:41,300 They were murdered. 83 00:05:41,300 --> 00:05:44,550 There is no other way to put it. 84 00:05:44,550 --> 00:05:54,100 They were failed from the minute these were chopped into service to the minute it sank. 85 00:05:54,100 --> 00:05:55,720 - Every person should be held accountable. 86 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:58,770 They all had a hand in this. 87 00:05:58,770 --> 00:06:02,960 They all had a hand in this, clear to the top, I believe. 88 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:04,470 - A lot of people should be court-martialed. 89 00:06:04,470 --> 00:06:11,750 - For the family of US Navy Hospitalman, Christopher Gnem the findings of the report still didn't 90 00:06:11,750 --> 00:06:16,000 provide the closure they lacked because of the circumstances of the recovery. 91 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:24,310 - [Nancy] I mean, still I cant take that vision out of my head, of him being in the AAV, drowning 92 00:06:24,310 --> 00:06:26,990 if he hit his head. 93 00:06:26,990 --> 00:06:29,660 or what's his last word. 94 00:06:29,660 --> 00:06:33,230 It's still in the back of my head. 95 00:06:33,230 --> 00:06:38,760 And now knowing that this went on for 45 minutes, how he would be panicking. 96 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:40,530 What was he thinking? 97 00:06:40,530 --> 00:06:46,930 I asked them once you guys get the boys up, please, I just wanna touch him and hold him 98 00:06:46,930 --> 00:06:48,460 one more time. 99 00:06:48,460 --> 00:06:51,030 They never gave me that. 100 00:06:51,030 --> 00:07:02,990 And I haven't got my closure to even touch him or hold him. 101 00:07:02,990 --> 00:07:13,870 That's like our last goodbye giving They never gave me that chance. 102 00:07:13,870 --> 00:07:17,900 - The roughly 2000-page investigation details not only the mistakes that led to the sinking 103 00:07:17,900 --> 00:07:22,440 of the AAV but hints at greater implications for the Marines and problems with the core's 104 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:25,560 entire amphibious assault vehicle fleet. 105 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:28,390 We'll keep digging into the report and be back with more details next week.