Canadian Soldiers pay tribute to fallen comrades, WO Frank Mellish, WO Richard Nolan, Sgt Shane Stachnik and Pte Mark Graham during a Ramp Ceremony held at the Kandahar Air Field.
Photograph by : Department of Defence
Friendly fire lessons not learned, says U.S. pilot (click on)
OTTAWA - As investigators probe the friendly fire incident in Afghanistan that this week killed a Canadian soldier, a former fighter pilot involved in a similar tragedy in 2002 says he fears that the U.S. air force may have never properly addressed the communication problems that surfaced in his case.
William Umbach, a retired major, was one of two Illinois Air National Guard F16 pilots who faced criminal charges after they mistook a Canadian training exercise near Kandahar for enemy fire and dropped a laser-guided bomb, killing four soldiers and injuring eight.
On Monday, Canadian troops operating in the same region were again victims of fratricide, when U.S. A-10 Warthog jets strafed their position west of Kandahar with cannon fire. Pte. Mark Anthony Graham, a former Olympic sprinter, was killed in the accident. NATO commanders have promised an investigation into the cause of the accident.
Umbach said the report from an inquiry into his April 2002 incident failed to address the key problem that he said is common to almost all such friendly fire cases: the breakdown in communications between air and ground forces.
