Two seasoned Navy SEALs who died during parachute training near Marana last year made mistakes that hurled them to their deaths, military investigators have determined.
Both had jumped safely hundreds of times before in practice and in combat, yet succumbed to human error despite their vast expertise, official reports on the deaths concluded.
A Tucson-area resident accomplished in military parachuting, who reviewed the reports at the Arizona Daily Star's request, called the Navy's findings "very mystifying" considering the extensive experience of both SEALs.
The Navy on Friday released results of its inquiries into the accidents that claimed Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Thomas J. Valentine, 37, and Chief Special Warfare Operator Lance M. Vaccaro, 35.
The two died within three weeks of each other in separate mishaps last winter after taking off from the Parachute Training and Testing Facility at Pinal Air Park, just north of Marana. An Army Ranger doing parachute training died at the same site less than six months later.
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The site is run by the U.S. Special Operations Command, which trains elite troops for some of the military's most dangerous stealth missions.
Valentine, a father of two from Ham Lake, Minn., and Vaccaro, of Reading, Pa., both were "confident and capable" parachutists with more than 300 jumps apiece under their belts, the Navy report said. Valentine had been a SEAL since 1990; Vaccaro, since 1997.
The last day of each man's life started out uneventfully, with their jump planes lifting off into clear Tucson skies.
Vacarro's final jump, on Feb. 13, 2008, took place under the stars, as he practiced a free-fall technique know as HAHO, short for High Altitude, High Opening. The method, typically used to enter hostile territory undetected, involves jumping into friendly airspace and drifting across a border at high altitude while wearing a portable oxygen supply.
Something — investigators couldn't say exactly what — went wrong in the seconds between when Valentine jumped and when he pulled his ripcord.
His parachute lines became tangled around his equipment, and possibly around his arms, "most likely caused by poor body position" just after he left the aircraft, the report said.
"Unfortunately, there is no direct evidence indicating what happened," the report said, because a camera that should have recorded his exit wasn't aimed right and "just missed" capturing the scene.
As he fell, Valentine radioed that he was "in a bad situation and unable to cut away his main parachute," the report said. The main chute must be cut free for the backup chute to fly properly.
Valentine never deployed the backup. His body was found on a golf course in Casa Grande.
Vaccaro died March 6, 2008, during an early-morning jump. The Navy report did not disclose many details of the mishap, such as what type of jump he was performing, what kind of harness he was wearing or the type of parachute used. A Navy spokesman couldn't immediately say why those details were withheld.
The reports on both deaths were heavily redacted by the Navy, which cited various exemptions from the Freedom of Information Act.
Investigators in Vaccaro's case found that he left the aircraft properly. But he quickly entered into a spin, and then a downward spiral that exerted "extreme gravitational forces," causing equipment to malfunction. The Navy blocked out the specifics of what equipment malfunctioned.
At that point, Vaccaro "failed to follow emergency procedures," investigators said.
He should have cut away his main parachute and deployed his backup, the report said. But he waited too long, never cut the main chute and released the backup so late that it didn't fill with air before he hit the ground.
Vaccaro survived the plunge, but died a short time later while being airlifted to University Medical Center.
No corrective action was recommended as a result of Valentine's death. In Vaccaro's death, reviewers recommended extra training and equipment testing, and the use of an altitude alarm to warn jumpers when they are reaching critical altitude for deploying their backup chutes.
The Valentine family had no comment on the Navy's findings. Vaccaro's family couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Robby Robinson of SaddleBrooke, a retired special-operations commando with more than 1,000 military free-fall jumps in the United States and Britain, read the Navy's reports at the Star's request Friday and was confounded by the findings.
"For two highly trained military men to have the problems described is very mystifying," Robinson said.
"Both were highly experienced at free-fall drops and both had served in dangerous situations around the world. They were not men who would have panicked very quickly.
"It's just very strange that two experienced jumpers should be described as making similar errors as it relates to body position."
Robinson questioned why neither report mentioned the state of mind of the jumpers or possible stressors they might have been subject to, such as lack of sleep, he said, or weariness from repeated war missions.
"Any of those things could cause them to react in ways that are different from their normal behavior," he said.
Cmdr. Greg Geisen, a Navy special warfare spokesman, was not immediately able to answer such questions on Friday.
Geisen noted in a news release that SEAL training is "inherently dangerous."
On Aug. 13 2008, Army Ranger Christopher M. Roulund, 27, also fell to his death at the Marana site. The status of that investigation was not immediately clear on Friday.
