Marine Corps F/A-18C pilot Capt. Jake Frederick was killed when his Hornet crashed Wednesday off the coast of Japan, the Marine Corps announced Thursday. Frederick, who was stationed with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa, ejected from the aircraft at about 6:40 p.m. local time on Dec. 7. The aircraft, which crashed nearly 120 miles southeast of Iwakuni, Japan, was “conducting regularly scheduled training at the time of the mishap,” the service announced. The crash was the fifth involving an F/A-18 this year. In May, two F/A-18F Super Hornets collided and the pilots safely ejected off the coast of North Carolina. In June, a Navy Blue Angels pilot was killed when his F/A-18 crashed during an airshow practice in Smyrna, Tenn. And in August, a Marine Corps pilot died when his F/A-18 went down during a training mission near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…