Silent Knights: Blowing the Whistle on Military Accidents and their Cover-Ups — Although this book is out of print it is still available, especially through Amazon.com. It provides a comprehensive treatment on the subject of military accidents and their immense social and economic cost and goes behind the scenes to explain how Pentagon blunders and tragic circumstances combine to cause accidents that kill. The author is a former senior safety scientist for the USAF and explains in detail how accidents are investigated and hushed up. It is especially useful for police investigations because it not only provides a description of the methodologies used by the enormous pressure that can be brought to bear by superiors who are afraid of adverse findings. Just as importantly, it describes how uncorrected mistakes lead to further tragedies and emphasizes the critical importance of thorough investigations and candid and truthful findings.
Alan E. Diehl, Silent Knights: Blowing the Whistle on Military Accidents and their Cover-Ups, Brassey’s, Inc., Dulles, Virginia, 2002 (309 pages)
Recommended by Sid Heal in Episodes 1 & 2
