This is a perplexing one as we all think how did this guy with 1000's of hours in top level fighters, (in an environment that drills procedures into you on the basis of if you don't follow orders/procedures, someone dies) miss so much in his preflight.
It is also totally out of character by all reports.
There are numerous sources that said his preflights were typically 1hr - as you would expect of someone who has had safety procedure drilled into their brain.
Also numerous reports that he chastised people for doing intersection takeoffs and was never seen doing one himself - why leave all that runway behind you?
Yet, he missed actually phisically moving the ailerons and elevator on his walk around, missed removing the gust lock, and missed controls free and correct.
He was dead 42 minutes after his wife left the hangar and he hadn't started preflighting then.
He then did an intersection takeoff!
Something had him hurrying! What, we'll never know. Get theritis?
I'm sure we've all missed something on a checklist, I know I have, but not so many all at once, and all related to the controls.
And IBob is right, we can't let our checklists become routines that just prolong the time before we get airborne.
They are there for a reason - to keep us alive.