Michael H.C. McDowell is a Fellow in New America's Future Security Program, focusing on the alarmingly high death rate and critical injury toll on soldiers, Marines, airmen and women, and Navy personnel, in military tactical vehicle "rollovers"-- Humvees, Light Armored Vehicles, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, heavy troop trucks, dune-buggy-like MRZRs, etc. The fatalities, all in training, on these "vics," now exceed deaths in combat. Each of these war machines is top-heavy, over armored, and prone to "rollover" if not driven carefully, or encountering unidentified terrain hazards. These transports also are often old, worn out by wars, unreliable, and pushed through safety inspections which they should fail. Mr. McDowell has been a fellow at several think tanks, colleges, and foundations: the Carnegie Endowment, Harvard University, Aspen Institute, Gates Foundation, etc. He was honored by the UK government for his work on the Northern Ireland peace process. A native of Belfast, UK, he is also a Canadian, Irish, and US citizen. His son, Marine troop commander, 1st. Lt. H. Conor McDowell (24), was killed in a rollover at Camp Pendleton, San Diego on May 9, 2019. "He saved our lives," his men said after their commander's death. Michael McDowell, his wife, Susan Flanigan, and Conor's fiancee, Kathleen Bourque, also work closely to support the mourning families of those killed in rollovers over the past two years. Their efforts have won major support in the US Congress, in both House and Senate. A major Government Accountability Office report on rollover deaths, will be published in May. House Armed Services Committee hearings on the issue continue. And extensive serious media coverage in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Washington Examiner, San Diego Union-Tribune, Orange County Register, Marine Times, etc, is ongoing. Mr. McDowell has garnered innovative engineering help on rollover prevention from military and civilian experts who support the safety campaign.
