reply to post by schrodingers dog
Shrodiger, the truth is, there's no hard and fast rule. There's no good-for-every-situation rule.
If two helicopters crash into each other, then yes, by all means, this was clearly an accident where no combat was directly involved. If a truck in a
convoy rolls over and kills someone, then yes, tell the truth.
But in the heat of combat, when there is shooting and dying, in a sense, these men did die in combat. For whatever reason, it appears to be more
acceptable to the families if their loved one died fighting. Went down swinging. And even in unfortunate events of blue on blue, they really, really
did.
Some of the damndest things happen. A mortar round will bounce off a limb and land right between your legs and not go off. An artillery round will
impact six feet away and not go off. An RPG will bury itself in the rucksack of a man, crack ribs, but not explode. A bullet goes through one side
of the helmet at an angle, and just inside, makes a few laps without hitting the head. Things that should have absolutely, positively resulted in
death - didn't.
The flip side is when a man has good cover, good protection, is careful and doing it by the book, and a wild ricochet catches him just right, right in
the neck. A man goes running forward and crosses into his teammates line of fire.
I'm not saying the tank deal was a good or bad call. But it's a hell of a thing to tell someone that, "well, your son just got his own ass killed
by crossing into the line of fire. Sorry your man is dead. His own damned fault."
The Army has done everything it can think of, and has folks who do nothing but study blue on blue and try to anticipate how future events may occur so
they may be prevented. The Army isn't this monster that Angel would like to believe. It is made up of soldiers. Soldiers who sometimes make
mistakes.
But at least they have their asses on the line trying.
This shredding papers looks bad, whether it was in fact bad, or not. I assure you, there'll be some asses hung out in the breeze over this, and
hopefully, lessons learned.
I do enjoy your posts.
