WASHINGTON – Congressman Vern Buchanan announced today that a series of sweeping new military training reforms he has been fighting for were included in the final version of the House-passed FY22 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The legislation, which Buchanan introduced as a standalone bill (H.R. 5268) and then offered as an amendment to the NDAA in September, requires the Pentagon to implement more realistic training practices, develop stricter enforcement standards and ensure better oversight to prevent future military training accidents and deaths. The language closely mirrors a provision included in the final version of the NDAA which passed the U.S. House last night by a vote of 363-70.
Buchanan has been a leading advocate in Congress for reforming our current training procedures and improving emergency response capabilities after the tragic death of Army Specialist Nicholas Panipinto of Bradenton. Panipinto died in a vehicle training accident in South Korea in 2019.
“Improving tactical vehicle safety and military training capabilities will reduce future accidents and help save lives,” said Buchanan. “After the heartbreaking death of my constituent, Nicholas Panipinto, preventing these accidents has become one of my top priorities. I am pleased to see the House take action on this bipartisan legislation and look forward to the president signing it into law.”
In July, a report released from the federal government’s top watchdog, which investigated non-combat tactical vehicle accidents, found that a lack of driver training and failures to properly oversee and implement key safety procedures were largely to blame for several fatal training accidents. Following this report, Buchanan called on the Pentagon to immediately adopt these recommendations.
“The serious deficiencies and failures in tactical vehicle training required immediate action,” said Buchanan. “The loss of a single American soldier is tragic and the continued loss of service members in training accidents is completely unacceptable.”
According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, between 2006 and 2018 a staggering 32 percent of active-duty military deaths were the result of training accidents. During that same period, only 16 percent of service members were killed in action. And in 2017 alone, nearly four times as many service members died in training accidents than were killed in action.
In sworn testimony from the master driver in Panipinto’s unit, who was responsible for training troops on vehicles and administering licenses, the unit’s driver training program was “nonexistent.” The unnamed individual went on to state, “when I took over the program there was nothing, I had no paperwork for any soldiers with licenses. Soldiers came up to me and informed me that the previous master driver just gave them licenses without a 40-hour block of instruction.”
According to Panipinto’s mother, Kimberly Weaver, Panipinto did not have a license, the required amount of driver training or any classroom instruction before beginning his road-test.
Last year, Buchanan offered an amendment to the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act that was successfully signed into law. His amendment required the Department of Defense (DoD) to examine emergency response capabilities and services currently available at U.S. bases around the world, and to report to Congress on the potential benefits and feasibility of requiring bases to have properly functioning MedEvac helicopters and fully stocked military ambulances.
In August 2020, Buchanan called on the House Armed Services Committee to hold a public hearing on military training accidents. Buchanan also sent a letter to then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in June 2020 proposing several changes to the training and safety protocols to prevent future deaths.
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