Item 1: I'm not in favour of this trial.
Item 2: I knew one of the people killed, and 2 of the others who were wounded, and have a good friend who was good friends with Sgt. Leger who quite frankly should be in psychiatric care he's been so volatile since the incident. This effects me in a closer way than it does most of you.
Hblair, that was the first I've heard of a missile, the pilots so far as I've heard only saw tracer fire going into the air (this is confirmed by Canadian troops, there were riccochets from full auto MG fire going skyward).
BTW Texace, the training grounds were about 3 or 4 miles from the end of Khandahar's main runway. It's not like it was out in the middle of knowhere.
The problem is that the US pilots were briefed to expect a lot of AAA, as Iran was suspected of supplying the Taliban with a lot of AAA hardware, and to EXPECT fire from anywhere. The Canadian excercise was OMITTED from their briefing. All this crap about the uppers etc is exactly that: crap.
The pilots called AWACS serveral times requesting clarification that there was in fact NO FRIENDLY troops in the area. In my book they did their part, and any pilot who sees tracer fire near their aircraft will surely drop a bomb on the source if given the chance to.
The failure was in the briefing staff and the communications between ground and air forces in terms of co-ordination of exercises, this is a KNOWN issue as several ranking officers over there warned that this specific incident was just waiting to happen.
It's a shame that these pilots are on trial, but US guys, realize it's more the USAF putting them on trial than the Canadian Forces, as the USAF knows that their briefers and the officers put in charge of co-ordination (no Canucks were allowed in on this) are the ones who dropped the ball, and obviously THEIR rank supercedes the F16 pilot's innocense.
It was a horrible accident, but the finger is being pointed in the wrong place.
Also, a little tibit for your gay little attitude Texace:
When the PPCLI engaged in the operation on the whale, the Canadian troops had to CARRY their own water and food for the duration of the operation, UP the freaking hill. The 10th mountain troops got flown in to a higher spot, where the Canucks had to CLIMB, PLUS got their rations and water FLOWN in daily.
35% of the 10th mountain went down to heat/altitude exhaustion during the festivities. Zero Canadians went down.
Not to mention the fact that our sniper units working with SF, Delta, and various Seal teams racked up more bodies than anyone else, inlcuding the longest combat shot in the world, earning the highest praises from the most elite units in the USA. In the words of one Seal: The Canadians are equivalent to us in terms of capabilites, and this is their regular line infantry.
Enough said.
PPCLI
