Amazing article about a bad drone strike and US accountability

Pages

Amazing article about a bad drone strike and US accountability

By Obdicut (Now with 2% less brain)

Military • April 2011 • Views: 1,671

latimes.com

This article shows two things:

First, it shows the limitations of technology. Just because we have amazing high tech toys does not mean our picture of the battlefield is any clearer if the humans on the job fall down.

It also shows the great seriousness with which the US takes civilian casualties.

Short summary of story: We blew up a convoy of cars that were just some families traveling together for mechanical safety, all of whom were unarmed, with women and children present. The reasons why were human failures.

Recent Pages by Obdicut (Obdicut (Now with 2% less brain)):
My proposal for gun rights Statistics Saturdays (most of the time): Normal Distributions Sociological Sundays: Something Old, Something New, It All Blew Statistics Saturdays: Data types, Averages, and Common Lies Statistics Saturdays: Sampling

Jump to bottom

5 comments

lawhawk Sun, Apr 10, 2011 6:09:01pm

Obdi,

Interesting article - just noticed a typo in the headline though - strike - not stroke.

Curt Sun, Apr 10, 2011 7:01:46pm

I personally became involved in two accidents in my career.

Both we caused by poor communications. One cost the taxpayers $195K and left a handful of sailors scared, but thankful that no people were injured. The other caused the deaths of Turkish Navy personnel a few short moments after midnight during a NATO exercise.

Changes were significant changes in procedure were made in the wake of the international incident, and my involvement was to make sure everyone on the East Coast was proficient in the new procedures and understood how bad comms caused it.

The other one had changes. too.

Romantic Heretic Mon, Apr 11, 2011 4:32:55am

It’s a story as old as warfare. Until we become omniscient we’re going to make mistakes. Innocents die.

I’d quote something from Sun Tzu but my memory doesn’t work well this early in the morning.

Bob Dillon Mon, Apr 11, 2011 12:56:37pm

marinecorpstimes.com

Report: Drone missile killed Marine, sailor
Staff report
Posted : Monday Apr 11, 2011 14:31:56 EDT
An Air Force drone caused the April 6 deaths of a Marine reservist and Navy hospitalman in Afghanistan, NBC News is reporting.

The Defense Department confirmed last week that both deaths were under investigation, but released no further detail.

According to NBC News, Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Hospitalman Benjamin Rast were killed after a Predator fired a Hellfire missile.

Smith, 26, of Arlington, Texas, and Rast, 23, of Niles, Mich., were assigned to Houston-based 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines.

It is believed to be the first friendly fire incident involving a Predator in which a U.S. service member was killed, according to NBC News.

DoD reported April 8 that Rast died while conducting a dismounted patrol northeast of Patrol Base Alcatraz in Helmand province. DoD did not report further detail on the death of Smith, who served as a light armored vehicle crewman.

Bob Dillon Mon, Apr 11, 2011 1:13:38pm

re: #2 Curt

Back when we were still doing amphib ops at Sardinia (1962) after sweeping for mines we were sent off to chase fishermen out of the operation area. A US Destroyer from behind a high point of land from us and out of radio communications began firing. We watched the 5” shells splash and walk towards us. The last two bracketed us starboard to port by about 20 yards. Needless to say there were some choice words exchanged between captains when we rounded the point and had comm with them again.

Auto

This page has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!