US general apologises for deadly mistakes

The Times (UK) ^ | March 31, 2003 | Helen Rumbelow

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AMERICA'S most senior military official apologised yesterday on behalf of his troops for the killing of three British soldiers in "friendly fire" incidents in Iraq.

General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that there was "simply no excuse" for his forces to make such fatal mistakes. He made reference to the latest victim, Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, 25, who was killed by fire from a US A10 tankbuster aircraft when it fired on two British armoured vehicles outside Basra.

General Myers said that he would make it his quest to prevent future deaths and that he would order new measures to help to protect British troops from allied Americans.

"It's the absolute saddest tragedy that any of us can experience," General Myers said. "I don't ever accept that they are inevitable, and I don't think we should ever stop trying to find means to prevent that from happening."

Five British servicemen have been victims of "blue-on-blue" incidents in the past week of fighting in Iraq, two of them from British comrades.

Flight Lieutenant David Rhys Williams and Flight Lieutenant Kevin Barry Main were killed a week ago when their GR4 Tornado was shot down by an American Patriot missile near the Kuwaiti border. "I regret the lives of the crew of the Tornado that was engaged by the Patriot system, and I think we have had another 'friendly fire' incident since then," General Myers said on Breakfast With Frost on BBC One. "My heart and the heart of our Joint Chiefs of Staff go out to those in the British forces who have been harmed in this way," he said. "One of my jobs has to be to ensure that we get the resources and the technical means to ensure that in the future this never, never happens again."

The widow of Lance Corporal Hull said yesterday: "He had rightly earned the utmost respect from everyone he worked with, and this makes it that much harder to accept this accidental death."

However, Susan Hull said she drew comfort from the fact that Lance Corporal Hull, from the Blues and Royals, Household Cavalry Regiment, died doing the job he believed in. "Matty always strived for a challenge and Iraq has proved his ultimate test," she said.

"His aim in life was to be the best he could be, and there was certainly no better husband, son or brother on this earth. I know that he was where he wanted to be, doing the job he believed in when he died."

She decided to talk about her husband's life because she wanted to make clear "Matty wasn't just another number added to a casualty list". She said: "Matty's personal strength instilled in me the ability to 'dig deep' and 'be strong', and that is what I, and everyone who loved him so greatly, must now do. It is what he would want."

Lance Corporal Hull was based in Windsor. He died on Friday, just three days before his 26th birthday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mark van der Lande, commanding officer of his regiment, said that it was in mourning for his loss. It was a "bitter blow", he said. "This is a particularly difficult time for the regiment and its families. I would like to pay tribute to the bravery and courage of these soldiers and to that of the rest of the squadron.

"An investigation is taking place in theatre, but, because of the operational situation the full facts have yet to emerge," he said from the regiment's base in Windsor.

The bodies of ten British servicemen returned to Britain are being held in a temporary mortuary at RAF Brize Norton. Inquests have been opened into their deaths and adjourned.

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The British forces involved in this unfortunate incident are understandably upset and expressed their strong criticism in an accompanying article - I will not post it, but the link is here.

Our military leaders will do everything in their power to avoid future mishaps with our British allies, and our sympathies go to the victims and their families. These things happen in war, but we will take every reasonable measure to prevent them from reoccurring.

But the most important thing is that we must remain united in this noble cause - the disarmament of Saddam Hussein and the liberation of Iraq. The military forces of the United States, Great Britain, Australia and the other coalition partners have accomplished great things in the last week, and the end of Saddam is in sight.

[MEG33]

I am in agreememt with you. I hate friendly fire..I hope we can fix this.God bless the Brits.God help us aim better.

[Don W]

It's war. Stuff happens. Life is hard, then you die.

[John Valentine]

"It's war. Stuff happens. Life is hard, then you die."

Yeah, we accept that.

But 'stuff' like this should not happen. We need these couragous men in battle with the enemy, not with each other.

[Ramcat]

To all the Brits. Thank you for your brotherhood. Thank you for your sacrifice. We're sorry about the accidents.

One thing though. As this war goes on our troops will improve as they gain combat experience. Conversely the enemy gets weaker each day.

[AFPhys]

BS: There are ALWAYS friendly fire problems in war. The FACT is... the most deadly forces to our military on the field is our OWN military, not the enemy. We have worked to eliminate as much of this as we can, but it will NEVER be perfect, and we must accept these things will happen even as we work to improve it. As it is, our military has a historically low incidence of friendly fire incidents due to our unprecedented knowledge of where virtually every one of our troops is on the battlefield.

This is another side of the same coin as civilian casualties - they will occur, regardless of how hard we work to avoid them. If we get FIXATED on this problem, we will be Paralyzed, and never be able to move on the battlefield.

To say "stuff like this should not happen" is childish in this arena.

[drlevy88]

Maybe the reason there have been far more Yank-on-Brit FF accidents than vice versa, is that we have far more troops and stuff in the field. Our British friends have ample reason to be sad and grieved, but I hope they are not surprised or shocked.

[Ramcat]

Maybe.
I think we're all sad and grieved but war is hell and I'm glad we've got the Brits to go through hell with.

[Winniesboy]

"There are ALWAYS friendly fire problems in war"

Indeed. This isn't the most diplomatic time to bring it up, but I'm reminded of a saying current among British ground troops in WWII. It went something like this:

"When our planes come over, cheer. When Jerry planes come over, fire. When Yank planes come over, TAKE COVER!"

[John Valentine]

I havwe no argument with your position. I KNOW that friendly fire incidents will occur in spite of our best efforts to avoid them. When I say they should not occur, I am not saying that they must not occur, because, of a certainty, the WILL occur.

We still ought to make sure that Brit tanks have IFF devices on board. That is whare I started in this discussion, and that is where I remain.

One other comment: I believe that the only reason that the friendly fire incidents are getting so much attention is the singular lack of ability on the part of the enemy to inflict casualties on our troops. Since the B on B incidents are pretty much a function of the troop density and the action rate, they are pretty much normal for the level of combat we have seen so far. The anomalous statistic as I see it is the low casulaty figure resulting from ENEMY action. This creates a anomalously high ratio for frendly finre casulaties and casulaties from enemy action.

[geedee]

Amen.