![]() Joseph Votel, SOCOM's commander at the time, quietly launched an intervention, halting all free-fall jumps for three months. ![]() In September 2015, just two weeks after the investigation into Kortz's death was completed, Army Gen. Special Operations Command, which oversees the SEALs and each of the four military services' most elite units. This rise in training deaths alarmed senior leaders at U.S. He was one of 11 special operators who died in such training accidents between 20, a 60 percent increase over the previous five-year period, according to 13 years worth of records obtained and analyzed by Military Times. But Kortz's death on March 18, 2015, was far from an isolated incident. Brian Losey, then the commander of Naval Special Warfare, ordered a thorough review of his command's air operations. The Navy’s investigation, released to Military Times under the federal Freedom of Information Act, found troubling flaws in the SEALs' jump-training programs. Officials determined Kortz was ordered to perform the complicated jump before he was ready, and that his death was "preventable." Adm. Moments later, the third class special warfare operator was dead. When he did, it got tangled in the main chute and wrapped around his gear. Kortz radioed the jumpmaster, who told him to cut his main chute and deploy the backup. He deployed his main parachute, but the uncontrolled fall caused it to tangle around his body. He was unable to arch his body and stabilize the fall, military investigators concluded. Tumbling head over heels at speeds exceeding 100 mph, Kortz panicked. But this training mission was much more complex - and it became a catastrophe almost the instant he exited the aircraft. As a student in the Navy’s Advanced Tactical Air Assault Course, Kortz had completed 32 prior free-fall jumps. Tragically, this jump was also Kortz's last. America's elite special operations troops conduct such training missions to prepare for the types of high-stakes, clandestine missions that have become a centerpiece of the U.S. Navy SEAL Jason Kortz was 10,000 feet over Perris, California, about to perform his first a high-altitude, high-open jump while wearing night vision goggles and weighed down with bulky, cumbersome combat gear.
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