Posted on 04/06/2009 8:21:19 PM PDT by Karma Police
WASHINGTON - Army brass in Iraq whitewashed an incident of a soldier killed by his own lieutenant by blaming the dead hero, stonewalling his family and promoting his killer, the Daily News has learned.
The friendly-fire victim, Pfc. David Sharrett, 27, of Oakton, Va., was "misidentified" by 1stLt. Timothy Hanson as an enemy gunman during a botched night raid Jan. 16, 2008, against an Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold north of Baghdad, the Army belatedly acknowledged.
Sharrett bled to death as his buddies searched frantically for him for 25 minutes after the firefight ended.
For four months after the Army knew the truth, it still insisted to Sharrett's father that he was killed by enemy fire - and gave only a temporary wrist slap to Hanson under pressure from the families of Sharrett and two other G.I.s killed in the clash.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
I don’t know how I feel about this. If this was due to poor leadership or incompetence the Army must take corrective measures.
If I were to die overseas I would rather my family not know all the gory details.
>But don’t let the MSM be the judge, jury and executioner in any military mishaps.
Yep... That wouldn’t sit too well with me, being judged by a jury of the MSM.
Its called span of control and it will bite you in the butt at night. Doing it over a large area under fire is an accident waiting to happen.
I think the worst part of the story is not the friendly fire, but the fact that the Army lied about the incident to the family, and promoted the Lieutenant who left his soldiers on the battlefield.
“The Army’s probe eventually faulted Hanson, 30, of Janesville, Wis., for a series of blunders, including flying away in a chopper and “leaving no leader from the team on the ground” to find and help his soldiers.”
To those reading this account, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Have you ever been in a firefight?
2. Have you ever been in a firefight at night?
3. Do you have any clue what goes on in those circumstances?
As someone who has been in such firefights, and who has investigated many more, I can say without doubt that the account printed here is wrong. So is the account of the investigation. So is every soldiers recollection of what happened that night. A perfect recreation of the actions of all of the soldiers and the enemy is impossible to derive. Certainly leaders on the spot understand only a small part of what is going on.
Now, was 1LT Hanson negligent? I don’t know and you don’t either. We can’t know by the story printed here and perhaps not even if we could read the report of the investigation. I will say that I am concerned by the part of the story that implies that the LT was on one of the first birds out. The rule is that the leader is on the first bird in and on the last bird out, at least that was the rule when I was doing this.
Generally, a platoon leader should be more concerned with controlling the fires and movement of troops during these night operations, then engaging targets himself.
Whether is was friendly fire or not, your son died a hero, don't blame the military!
Seems to me there are two different issues here. If the army knew the PFC was killed by one of his own after ballistics tests were completed they had an obligation to tell the family. The other issue is whether the killing was just the results of the fog of battle. If the Lt wasn’t negligent or careless there is no reason for for anyone to blame him for it.
here it starts, the picking at the military, how evil is the military, the military needs to be rebuilt from top to bottom with gays in charge etc.............
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.