My question is, why are we conducting a live fire training exercise, at night, using close air support right in the middle of "indian country"? This only added to the fear and confusion. We had our own incident with this in Kuwait last year as you recall, but that was on an established training range.
There are a lot of factors involved in this I'm sure, but the bottom line is the pilot screwed up, used poor judgement and let his concern over perceived ground fire override the safety of friendly troops on the ground.
I've trained with Canadian soldiers. They're tough as nails and highly skilled. My heart goes out to you.
I asked the same question and someone responded that if livefire exercises are necessary even in a war zone since garrison duty can get very dull and boring and cause the troops to lose their edge.