Ron Wyden: “for nearly two years, my home state has suffered through an agonizing process, trying to find out what happened aboard…”

“for nearly two years, my home state has suffered through an agonizing process, trying to find out what happened aboard King-56, an Air Force Reserves C-130 that crashed off of the California coast, killing 10 of the 11 Oregon airmen on board in November, 1996. The families of those victims have worked tirelessly to find out the truth, both for their own peace-of-mind and so that corrections could be made, if necessary, to protect other American servicepeople. It should not have been nearly as hard as it has been to get this information. Drawing from this experience, my Oregon colleague Senator Smith and I have joined together to put forward this proposal to try to change the procedures that the Air Force uses for investigating crashes of this sort, so that others will be spared the suffering that Oregonians have had to ensure. At the outset, let me acknowledge the hard work of the Air Force since reopening the King-56 investigation late last year.”