Get-There-itis?

Five U.S. Marines aboard a helicopter that went down during stormy weather in the mountains outside of San Diego are confirmed dead, the military said Thursday.

Authorities say the CH-53E Super Stallion vanished late Tuesday night while returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego after training at Creech Air Force Base, northwest of Las Vegas.

Grampaw Pettibone warned Navy and Marine Corps aviators for decades about the dangers of get-there-itis. Whether the pilot wanted to get back to San Diego or command ordered the pilot to do so, flying in extremely poor weather for a non-operational emergency smacks of piss-poor decision making.

I could be jumping the gun on this. Maybe the helo went down for reasons unrelated to the weather. But the odds are that it was a weather-related crash that cost the lives of five Marines and the loss of a very expensive helicopter.