Brit slams 'cowboy' US pilot

[2dogs]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,6119,2-10-1460_1340783,00.html

Brit slams 'cowboy' US pilot
31/03/2003 08:19 - (SA)

London - A British soldier who survived a fatal friendly fire incident has launched a scathing attack on the US pilot responsible for killing his comrade.

"He (the pilot) had absolutely no regard for human life. I believe he was a cowboy... He'd just gone out on a jolly," Lance Corporal Steven Gerrard told The Times of London, regarding the incident on Friday.

Gerrard, 33, spoke to one of the paper's reporters from his bed aboard the British hospital ship Argus in the Gulf.

A British soldier was killed and four others were injured Friday in a friendly fire incident in southern Iraq, the fifth such casualty since the war began.

He was killed after an American A-10 tankbuster plane targeted two armoured vehicles near Iraq's second largest city Basra.

"You've got an A-10 with advanced technology and he can't use a thermal sight to identify whether a tank is a friend or foe. It's ridiculous," Gerrard said.

"Combat is what I've been trained for. I can command my vehicle. I can keep it from being attacked. What I have not been trained to do is look over my shoulder to see whether an American is shooting at me."

He added: "I'm curious about what's going to happen to the pilot. He's killed one of my friends."

Gerrard also criticised the pilot for shooting when there were civilians so close to the tanks.

"There was a boy of about 12 years old. He was no more than 20 metres away when the Yank opened up. There were all these civilians around."

Three of the injured British soldiers, including Gerrard, were flown home to Britain late on Sunday after being treated for shrapnel wounds and burns. A fourth remained in the hospital ship's intensive care unit, according to The Times.

"After this I am quite pleased to be going home," one of the wounded, Lieutenant Alex MacEwen, told the paper.

"'Blue-on-blue' has always been one of my biggest fears. It is something that my friends and family joked about. 'Don't worry about the Iraqis, it's the Americans you want to watch'. The proof is in the pudding really."

The fatal incident brought to five the number of British soldiers who have been killed by friendly fire since the US-led war on Iraq began on March 20.

On March 23, a US anti-missile Patriot missile shot down a British Tornado bomber, killing both pilots on board. A day later, two soldiers were killed when a British Challenger tank mistakenly opened fire on another Challenger tank.

 

[Greg L]

Gee, such a well reasoned and balanced article. :banghead:

 

[BigG]

This is unfortunate but not without precedent. I seem to remember my dad, a WWII doggie, telling me something to the effect that the only thing you are more scared of than the enemy is your own artillery.

 

[Feanaro]

Friendly fire happens. The pilot should be punished but never have we had a war without friendly fire.

 

[Waitone]

IIRC your basic stripped down A-10 does not have IR imaging. Seems last go round A-10 drivers had to use the IR imaging found on the missiles hung under their wings. We've got A-10 tenders on THR. Maybe they'll wander by.

In any case, why do I think the surviving soldier thought A-10 pilots were cowboys before the blue on blue?

I am sick unto death of this "cowboy" nonsense.

 

[Leatherneck]

Even if the 'Hog had a LANTIRN pod and/or imaging infrared Mavericks, such devices are not good enough to tell, say, a T-72 from a Challenger, especially outside minimum range, especially with precip, dust, smoke, etc. That said, I'm pretty sure the ROEs specify positive ID before shooting, except in designated free-fire zones. Sad.

TC
TFL Survivor

 

[agricola]

a fuller article from the BBC:

Troops' anger over US 'friendly fire'

By Patrick Barkham
On the RFA Argus in the Gulf


Three wounded UK soldiers have described how they survived an attack by a US A-10 Thunderbolt anti-tank aircraft that killed one of their troop and destroyed two armoured vehicles.
One of the survivors criticised the US pilot for showing "no regard for human life" and accused him of being "a cowboy" who had "gone out on a jolly".


The US A-10 aircraft circled and came around for a second attack
Another survivor said he stumbled out of the burning wreckage of his light tank and waved frantically to the American pilot to try to halt his second attack.

The so-called friendly fire incident, 40 kilometres (24.8 miles) north of Basra, left one soldier missing, presumed dead, and another in intensive care on RFA Argus, the UK forces' hospital ship in the Gulf.

Another soldier who had been in one of the two destroyed Scimitar light reconnaissance tanks, manned by the Household Cavalry, escaped without injury.

Nursing shrapnel wounds and burns, the three injured soldiers, Lieutenant Alex MacEwen, 25, Lance Corporal of Horse Steven Gerrard, 33, and Trooper Chris Finney, 18, spoke of their bewilderment and anger.

They said the US pilot apparently failed to recognise that their tanks were a British make, with special coalition identification aids and even a large Union flag on another machine in the five-vehicle convoy.

Advanced technology

Lance Corporal Gerrard said: "All this kit has been provided by the Americans. They've said if you put this kit on you won't get shot.

"We can identify a friendly vehicle from 1,500 metres [4,921 ft].

"You've got an A-10 with advanced technology and he can't use a thermal sight to identify whether a tank is a friend or foe. It's ridiculous.

I felt I was going to burn to death. I just shouted 'reverse, reverse, reverse'

Lance Corporal of Horse Steven Gerrard
"Combat is what I've been trained for. I can command my vehicle. I can keep it from being attacked.

"What I have not been trained to do is look over my shoulder to see whether an American is shooting at me."

The two Scimitars, followed by two armoured engineers' vehicles and another Scimitar light tank, set out on a "recce" of a road north west of Ad Dayr, north of Basra in southern Iraq, on Friday.

After coming under fire from Iraqi artillery, they were instructed to investigate a shanty town.

Troop leader Lieutenant MacEwen, 25, with special plastic bags now tied around his hands to treat his burns, described how the convoy tensed as villagers waving white flags approached from behind a large bank on the marshland by the Shatt al-Arab river.

"You could see the white flags above the bank but you didn't know whether they had any intention of surrendering or ambushing us," he said.

White light

Lance Corporal Gerrard said he suddenly heard the distinctive, relentless roar of an A-10's anti-tank gunfire.

"I will never forget that noise as long as I live. It is a noise I never want to hear again," he said.




Widow's emotional tribute
"There was no gap between the bullets. I heard it and I froze. The next thing I knew the turret was erupting with white light everywhere, heat and smoke.

"I felt I was going to burn to death. I just shouted 'reverse, reverse, reverse'.

"My gunner was screaming 'get out, get out'. How I got out of that hole I don't know. Then I saw the A-10 coming again and I just ran."

Lying on his hospital bed, he said the A-10 circled and made a return attack run.

"On the back of one of the engineers' vehicles there was a Union Jack," he said.

"For him to fire his weapons I believe he had to look through his magnified optics. How he could not see that Union Jack I don't know."

Tempting fate

The front two Scimitars, packed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, grenades, rifle rounds and flammable diesel fuel tanks, exploded into flames.

One of the soldiers' colleagues, Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, did not escape the explosion.


The British Scimitars have distinctive markings
Lance Corporal Gerrard also criticised the pilot for shooting when there were civilians so close to the tanks.

"There was a boy of about 12-years-old. He was no more than 20 metres [65.6 ft] away when the Yank opened up. There were all these civilians around.

"He [the pilot] had absolutely no regard for human life. I believe he was a cowboy. He'd just gone out on a jolly."

He added: "I'm curious about what's going to happen to the pilot.

"He's killed one of my friends and he's killed him on the second run."

Trooper Finney, who was hit in the leg when the A-10 made its second attack, said all the British soldiers and their families joked about "friendly fire".

He said: "I got a letter off my dad the day before the attack and it said 'Be careful, come home soon and watch out for those damn Yanks'.

"Looks like he tempted fate a bit there."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2901515.stm

this is a recurring theme in the media over here, and for it to get past the military censorship suggests that it is amongst UK forces in the conflict as well.

 

[Blackhawk]

The pilot should be punished

Perhaps we should wait until a board of inquiry determines whether or not he was at fault before considering such conclusions...?

 

[boing]

A day later, two soldiers were killed when a British Challenger tank mistakenly opened fire on another Challenger tank.

Maybe he thought it was an Abrams.

 

[Thumper]

Friendly fire happens. It's an unfortunate fact of combat.

To us, the Brits, the Iraqis...whoever.

Some just handle the facts of life with more dignity.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Friendly fire happens, but it should not. If the reports are correct that the column was properly identified to prevent such errors, then the pilot definitely needs to be disciplined.

In terms of the Brits slamming the pilot, they sort of have the right.

As for saying the pilot had no regard for human life, that is exactly what I want to see in pilots, sailors, and soldiers when they are attacking the enemy and not some namby pamby touchy feely feel good sorts of tactics. It is a war. I don't know why the Brits would be surprised the pilot showed no respect for human life. He did, his own while in the face of what he thought was the enemy. Too bad the fight was taken to the wrong people.

While I think the numbers have come around, we started off this war, the Afghan war, and the original Gulf War all with deficits in American/Allied/Coalition troops with more killed due to accidents and friendly fire than due to enemy fire, plus many who were simply injured. War is a dangerous business, but it is frightening to think that your chances to get kiled or injured early on may actually be greater than being killed or injured by non-combat activities or by friendly fire combat activities. We can be our own worst enemy.

 

[moa]

An interesting event in the annals of friendly fire is the battle of Hamburger Hill during the Vietnam War.

American helicopter gunships attacked American troops so often that the local ground commander told the helicopter crews that if they did it it again his troops would try and shoot them down.

If I remember correctly the threat worked.

 

[T.Stahl]

a) What vehicle could you confuse a Scimitar with?

b) Does the Iraqi army have Scimitars?

 

[Blackhawk]

Had a personal experience with something like that, moa.

Several of our dawn patrol aerial surveillance areas in Vietnam were a couple of clicks from a fire base manned by South Koreans, a few of whom were trigger happy with an M2. After a few days of our pilots reported being shot at with the fire coming from the north end of that fire base, our Operations Officer (who shall remain un-named) drew the mission and the ground fire. He radioed the firebase asking for artillery to be laid in on specified coordinates.

"But that's within our perimeter," came the excited reply from the FCO.

"Yes, and that's where the fire is coming from just as it has been for the last 4 days."

Zero problems from that moment forward.

Soldiers testing their guns shouldn't use friendly moving targets for tracking practice....

 

[MeekandMild]

IMHO that is a command issue and not a pilot control nor even communication issue. The Brits need to have specific areas of attack guarded by their own planes instead of mixed areas. Mixed armies have seldom worked exactly as advertised since the time of Alexander. Duh