A Maryland family pushes to prevent military rollover deaths

By Sheilah Kast,

Maureen Harvie

Published January 3, 2022 at 8:11 AM EST

U.S. Marines with Light Armored Reconnaissance Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/1, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, offload a Light Armored Vehicle during an amphibious landing as part of an expeditionary advance base exercise.

Since he was a kid, Conor McDowell had wanted to defend his country. He was proud to be a Marine, but the risks started to worry him.

In 2019, his father, Michael McDowell, and mother, Susan Flanigan, got the awful news their only son had been killed: the light armored vehicle he commanded rolled over, crushing him.

The investigation the McDowells pushed for counted hundreds of similar accidents in the last decade, many-preventable. We talk to the McDowells, and to Maryland Congressman Anthony Brown, about changes that could save lives.

Read about the GAO report on military vehicle deaths.

Original air date: October 25, 2021.

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Sheilah Kast

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.

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Maureen Harvie

Maureen Harvie is Senior Supervising Producer for On the Record. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and joined WYPR in 2014 as an intern for the newsroom. Whether coordinating live election night coverage, capturing the sounds of a roller derby scrimmage, interviewing veterans, or booking local authors, she is always on the lookout for the next story.

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