It remains to be proved - that Coburn's "estimate" of how man rounds were fired can be corroborated.
For the moment - he remains highly suspect...
Semper Fi
River Rat, you wrote:
"It remains to be proved - that Coburn's "estimate" of how man rounds were fired can be corroborated."
Well, let me give you an admission from Pantano himself in a sworn statement taken before he lawyered up back in June 2004,
"I placed my weapon on 3 round burst and began fire (sic). I hit the men with my rounds and continued to fire until my first magazine was empty. I then changed magazines and continued to fire until the second magazine was empty...I had fired both magazines into the men, hitting them with about 80% of my rounds." This can be found at Starnewsonline.com.
I agree that Coburn's credibility is suspect, but not because of the changing magazine issue. I think an admission from the accused would be corroboration enough. Coburn certainly appears to be the disgruntled NCO that Gittens has made him out to be in the MSM. Whether his disposition is enough to make him lie about a combat incident in order to overcome his fitness report, is a matter to be determined by the Article 32 Hearing Officer.
And likewise, some of the defense team's arguments and strategies are equally suspect. How many holes can you poke into Pantano's story?
I mean in yesterday's argument, Gittens said that Pantano followed the 4 S's "Shout, Show, Shove, Shoot." When you read his statement from June 2004, Pantano says that they "quickly pivoted their bodies towards each other." He says nothing about them coming towards him. "They did this simultaneously, while still speaking in muffled Arabic. I thought they were attacking me and I decided to fire my M-16A4 service rifle in self defense."
Which one is it? Were they coming at him, he says stop, they disregard and he shoots. Or, did they quickly pivot towards each other, and he shoots. Unfortunately, you can't cross examine a sworn statement from the accused like you can grill a witness for approximately 6 hours.
Maybe, we'll know at the court-martial, if there is one.