Friendly fire death was preventable: government report
This is an earlier story of one of the first FF incidences on Canadian troops by US forces:
Quote:
OTTAWA -- The U.S. fighter pilot who dropped the bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers three years ago says he's the fall guy in a Pentagon coverup aimed at hiding a dysfunctional command-control system.
In a new book, Maj. Harry Schmidt, who has been assigned to desk duty for the balance of his air force career, is quoted as saying the whole incident would have been shoved under the carpet had it involved U.S. troops instead of Canadians.
In Friendly Fire: The Untold Story, author and journalist Michael Friscolanti said the air force realized soon after the air strike southwest of Kandahar that its entire command-control system could be opened to scrutiny.
In the first extensive interview with the F-16 pilot since the April 18, 2002, incident, Friscolanti says Schmidt believes a coverup was the only way the military could protect the status quo going into the Iraq war.
"I think I'm a victim of the fact that it was an international accident," Schmidt told him, adding it would have been the same if the victims were Danish or French or anyone else in the U.S.-led coalition.
The Pentagon could have kept the whole thing relatively quiet if the troops taking part in the live-fire exercise that night were Americans.
|
This all stinks of bad intelligence and these guys are taking the major guilt for things.
In the original topic and pilot who strafed in the A-10.... he was instructed to target smoke..... that's not the smartest or brightest discription now is it? A normal operation would be based on general co-ordinates and some additional descriptions..... not just look for smoke and blow it up.
If military intelligence was working properly, don't you think a warning of friendly soldiers would have been annouced that they are in the area?
These pilots can only work with what they are given..... and perhaps the reason why he never used his equipment, is probably based on the difficulty of the mission assigned to him..... if he was under the impression no allies were nearby, then why would he require to identify his target during this strafing mission?
If they were to cover our troops, then don't you think co-ordinates would have been supplied to where we were located in the first place to avoid such an incident.
This might be partly the pilots error in not using the equipment supplied to him, but I don't think this is all his fault.
If he was supplied information of co-ordinates and locations of friendly forces, then he'd have a use for his equipment.... instead he was just instructed to target smoke.... as if there wouldn't be any other smoke during a war?
Sometimes I wonder and worry about your guy's troops..... like is the Military just throwing darts at a map and telling everyone to attack wherever it lands?