Navy aviators eject during carrier landing off Virginia

It happened just before 6:18 p.m. off the Virginia coast, during what the Navy calls routine recovery operations. Two aviators from Carrier Air Wing 3 punched out of their aircraft while landing on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Four sailors on deck were injured. The whole thing was over in seconds, but that is the nature of carrier aviation. Nobody walks away from a carrier landing without understanding the risk. The fact that these crew members are still with us is the first and most important story.

The military is calling it a "mishap," which is the official way of saying something went very wrong and they don't know why yet. That is the right call. We wait for the investigation, and we trust the Navy to be honest about what it finds. But we should not wait to thank the sailors and aviators who do this work every single day while the rest of us go about our evenings. The men and women on that deck were doing their jobs. Four of them took hits to protect a multimillion-dollar machine and, more importantly, each other.

This will likely get a brief mention on the cable news ticker and nothing more. Doug over on the liberal talk shows might wring his hands for a segment, then move on. But the fleet doesn't move on. The Navy will review its procedures, fix the problem, and fly again tomorrow. That is the America First military we actually want: ready, resilient, and learning from hard days. We owe them our support, not just our applause. And if this incident reminds even one member of Congress why we need to fund maintenance, modernization, and crew rest, then some good may come of a very close call.