Twenty-one years ago tonight
This is republished from a year ago;
Twenty years ago, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry attached to the Third Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (from the Third Brigade of the 2d Armored Division (Forward)), was the only US unit in Iraq. We were fifteen clicks from the Saudi border, screening for the sweep east of Schwartzkopf’s “Hail Mary” strategy. For two days we had been watched by Iraqis and had a little contact. with some reconnaissance elements. However on February 17th, my gunner spotted 5 T-55s about 1500 meters in front of our defilade position and I called for indirect fire. The first response came from an Apache unit. The pilot ignored his instruments and fired the wrong grid coordinate, directly to my west, striking two vehicles in our own Scout platoon anchoring our far west flank.
COB6 was the platoon leader of the platoon between my platoon and the Scout elements. Despite the orders of our company commander (a phrase that I use in several other stories involving COB6 and our commander), COB6 pulled his vehicle off the line and rushed to the burning vehicles (An M3 and and an M113 from the GSR unit). COB6 and his crew pulled the broken bodies from the vehicles with burning ammunition exploding around him and shielded the injured Scouts with his own body. Two of those scouts were dead, but three others owe their lives to COB6 and his crew.
Needless to say we stopped calling for Apaches and after slamming two TOWs into a berm about a hundred meters in front of us, we used artillery fire. My first ever call for indirect fire in total darkness. The following morning, M1s found the T-55s 5000 meters north of the spot my gunner had spotted them.
And, oh, yeah, my granddaughter celebrates her 20th birthday today, too.
Category: Historical
This gives me a pain in my heart, Jonn. Where has COB6 been lately…and how are the guys who made it?
oops…cleaned cache….That was me…
It is truly horrible. The person in that Apache wasn’t supposed to be out there at all, he had disobeyed orders by even flying that night. Tragic for all concerned. It’s tough when you loose people, even tougher when it’s because of something like that.
Jonn, I think of this story and you all who were there often – not just when the dreaded day comes around on the calendar each year. May God rest the fallen and may he watch over those of you who survived as you continue to deal with the horrible memories.
Love you!
For those of you wondering where COB6 has been, he’s part of the TAH insurgency on Capitol Hill. I hear from him occasionally, and he doesn’t follow my marching orders very well.
I raise a glass to fallen comrades.
we will see them on Fiddler’s Green.
So mote it be, Steadfast, and is there a name associated with that action Jonn? I intend to raise a glass to them and other fallen comrades tonight at the Legion Hall here.
These are the names of the members of 1/41 we lost throughout the war;
Tony R. Applegate
David R. Crumby
Manuel M. Davila
Anthony W. Kidd
David W. Kramer
Jeffery T. Middleton
James C. Murray, Jr.
Robert D. Talley
Talley and Middleton were killed that night.
We had the highest casualty rate of any other infantry unit in the war, I say it’s because both sides were shooting at us.
Thank you Jonn, I will toast them tonight.
They are remembered.
God bless their souls and mercy on all involved!
Jonn, Thanks for posting this. I remember when this occurred, but had never known the details.
I did agree with the commentator, at the time, that technology could never completely prevent Friendly Fire incidents, but the Blue Force Tracker has gone a long way in doing that.
If I remember correctly, about 1/4th of the fatalities were vehicular accidents, about 1/4th were friendly fire, and about 1/4th were a single Scud attack.
In the initial year of OEF, all of the fatalities that weren’t accidents (aircraft), were friendly fire incidents, except two, (if I remember right).
These high rates were a function of the low effectiveness of the enemy rather than an increase in the Fog of War. That does not diminish the devastation when it does occur.
As we remember Your Brothers, Our Brothers today, may we gain peace.
I still cannot see where that guy screwed the pooch like that. In looking at the images on the show, it was clearly not T-55 shaped vehicles they lit up.
Damn Jonn. I’m too young to remember this event, but I can only empathize with this whole situation. I feel like if I were in the pilot’s place, I could have easily made the same mistake. It’s hard to judge him after my own combat tour. I also can fully empathize with you and COB6 and watching your own birds blowing up your own boys must have been one of the most horrific experiences you’ve ever seen.
I got chills just watching the video. Here’s to them and our Brothers who have given more than I could ever give.
I remember it well. I think I told you before we were off to your East and our NCO’s and officers used it as a teachable moment. We spent alot of time talking about maing damn sure we knew what we were shooting at. I’ll tip a glass of single malt to COB and his men as well as the fallen…
To absent companions….
A snappy Salute and a heavy toast to the fallen!
IIRC, there were multiple violations of SOPs and standing orders in the Apache unit that led to this calamity.
@13 The mind is a powerful thing and if you’re convinced that what you are looking at is a T-55 it becomes one even if you’re staring at a Ford Pinto.
@17 Like most accidents there were a string of things that led up to the tragic event, if any one of those links in the chain were broken the event never would have happened. Tragic.
Many of us in 1st MarDiv were upset when we returned to Camp Pendleton. Most of our losses appeared to be caused by friendly fire.
Tonight, a dram of Gentleman Jack in their honor.
“We were fond together because of the sweep of open places, the taste of wide winds, the sunlight, and the hopes in which we worked. The morning freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought up with ideas inexpressible and vaporous, but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace.”
? T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph
From one old soldier to another Jonn, Salute.
You can always tell a pilot, but you can’t tell him much.
Tonight some Maker’s Mark for the fallen.
Thanks for your service Desert Storm Vets.
Thank you for putting names to these grainy images. I actually used this video in my BNCOC and ANCOC course as examples of the “fog of war”. I never knew their names or units.
To the Fallen…
I watched what was supposed to be various gun camera and other recordings of the event. The chopper voices were saying numbers not reflected in the instruments. If it was stock footage, that would be one thing. If it was all from the incident, that was another.
Struck me at the time that, in today’s combat, a soldier needs the heart of warrior and the mind of an accountant. Not strangely, putting the two into the same LBE is a chore. A guy has spent his entire career preparing to shoot tanks, he gets spun up during the six months of Desert Shield, the accountant side is not going to have much influence. Discipline, self-discipline, and evaluations under stress.
Most F/F incidents have as a major part of their cause, location. Somebody isn’t where they’re supposed to be and they are where the enemy is supposed to be. Or the orientation to friendlies from where they are is the orientation to the enemy, had the guys been where they were supposed to be.
And as has been said before, if you KNOW what you’re looking at, it hardly matters what you’re actually looking at.
What do you do for Memorial Day when every day is Memorial Day?