31 Marines wounded: Friendly fire

[wrbones]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/888496.asp?0cv=CB10




31 Marines injured in ‘friendly fire’



A U.S. Marine from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Division, looks Thursday at armored vehicles destroyed overnight by "friendly fire" near An Nasiriyah, Iraq.




March 27 -- NBC's Kerry Sanders reports from the scene of a "friendly fire" accident in Iraq that left 31 Marines wounded.



NBC NEWS AND NEWS SERVICES

AN NASIRIYAH, Iraq, March 27 — U.S. Marines mistakenly fired on one of their own units in southern Iraq, wounding 31 Marines, two of them critically, NBC’s Kerry Sanders reported from the scene Thursday.


THE ACCIDENT took place Wednesday night as the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, called for support when it came under fire. A second Marine unit started firing from a distance, but some of their shells fell on the 2nd Battalion position, reported Sanders, who is traveling with the 2nd Battalion.
The battle and “friendly fire” lasted about 90 minutes, Sanders said. “It was a very, very difficult night,” he added, but Marines were saying they were lucky no Americans were killed. Four Marine trucks were destroyed.
An earlier report said 37 Marines had been wounded, three critically.
Sanders said it was still not clear what led to the communications problem between the two Marine units.
The incident added to the mounting reports of casualties as coalition forces make their way north through Iraq. Coalition forces have met stiff resistance from Iraqi forces, including paramilitary groups, in the south, where they have faced a pattern of deadly ambushes and ruse attacks by Iraqi militiamen in civilian clothes.
U.S. officials have said nine Marines were killed Sunday near An Nasiriyah when an Iraqi unit indicated that it was giving up and then opened fire as the Marines approached. U.S. military sources said about 40 others were wounded. The Marines were stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[MillRatUSMC]

The worst thing that could happen in war, deaths by "friendly fire".
The must have been miscommunication some where in the chain of command.
On the location of these different units.
This was one of the things that I worried about and made sure that everyne knew the location and direction of any other Marine in our platoon was located.
Once I was to lead another platoon to relief a recon patrol that had taken some killed-in-action.
I was told that there would be no other friendly units other than recon patrol.
We were leading when a member of my platoon told me "we have movement on our right flank."
We were almost ready to fire when a Sergeant from the platoon I was leading yelled out "Bravo 3 this India 3!" I about froze.
Saying mentally "if that isn't Bravo 3, we're in big trouble.
That was return by a Sergeant that I knew in 2nd Platoon Bravo Company 3rd Recon Bn.
We made contact, I than informed them.
That I had been told that there would be no friendlys till I arrived where recon had taken those KIA's.
We could had several "friendly fire" casualties that night.
1st Lt. Frank Stanley Reasoner USMC MOH recipent was leading that recon unit.
He was platoon commander when I was in recon in Hawaii, before the needs of the Corps required my being transferred to a line company that was short of NCO's.
He told me to stay put if they needs assistance, he would call for us to move up.
After they left, the platoon commander of the platoon I was leading.
Asked why we were waiting, I relied what Lt. Reasoner had told me.
He said forget that, get me up there.
So we moved out and made contact with recon up on a high mountain out of Phu Bai.
Many were without water, we gave them some of our water.
There more to this but I'll stop for now.

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo