House approves Buchanan military training reform as part of defense bill

An amendment offered by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) to improve military training reforms received approval from the U.S. House of Representatives as part of a larger defense bill.

Rep. Buchanan’s amendment would require the U.S. Defense Secretary to implement updated training practices, develop stricter enforcement standards, and bolster oversight to prevent future military training accidents and deaths across the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.

The amendment was spurred by the death of U.S. Army Specialist Nicholas Panipinto of Bradenton, Fla., who died in a vehicle training accident in South Korea in 2019.

“Improving the training capabilities of our Armed Forces has remained one of my top priorities since the heartbreaking death of my constituent, Nicholas Panipinto,” Rep. Buchanan said. “I am pleased to see the House take action and approve my amendment to implement these commonsense proposals to prevent future training accidents and more importantly, save lives.” 

The amendment, which received House approval on Sept. 23 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, H.R. 4350, would require the Defense Secretary to develop more clearly defined roles for vehicle commanders and establish mechanisms and procedures for tactical vehicle risk management to be used by first-line supervisors, including vehicle commanders, according to the text of the amendment. 

Additionally, the amendment calls for the secretary to evaluate the number of personnel within operational units who are responsible for tactical vehicle safety and determine if these units are appropriately staffed, or if any adjustments are needed to workloads or resource levels to implement operational unit ground-safety programs, the summary says.  

“These proposals to improve tactical vehicle safety should significantly reduce the risk of future training accidents,” said Rep. Buchanan. “However, there is still more to do to ensure no more lives are needlessly lost because of easily preventable military training accidents.”