Essay About Observation Area And Ground Troops

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U.S., Kuwait ask why
bombing went terribly wrong
WASHINGTON– A team of Kuwaiti
and U.S. investigators sorted
through evidence on Tuesday trying
to learn how and why a U.S. Navy
jet dropped a 500-pound bomb near
observers at a training range, killing
six of them.
The F/A-18 Hornet was taking part
in a twice-yearly training flight on
Monday when the accident
happened.
The training flights have been a
regularly scheduled part of the
Persian Gulf area military
experience for 10 years — since a multinational force repelled an Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait and pledged to keep the tiny oil-rich nation safe in the
aftermath.
But on Monday, something went wrong. A Navy pilot practicing “close air
support” for ground troops suddenly dropped live ordnance near an
observation area, according to the U.S. Central Command.
The blast killed five Americans and a New Zealander, 27-year-old acting
Maj. John McNutt. The names of the five Americans killed have not been
released. Five other Americans and two Kuwaitis were injured.
Two of the injured have already been released, and some of the injured
Americans were evacuated to a U.S. airbase in Germany.
Central Command appointed an investigation board to arrive later this week
in Kuwait, where U.S. and Kuwaiti officials were already trying to learn
whether the error that led to the accident came about in the air — the pilots
mistake — or somewhere on the ground, either from faulty direction for air
traffic controllers or a tragic miscommunication that put the observers in
the line of fire.
“We will work hard to take care of the families involved, and to find out how
such an accident could occur,” U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld said in a statement.
It shouldnt happen
Meanwhile, New Zealand Prime
Minister Helen Clark pressed for
answers into the death of her
countrys soldier.
“We dont, in the normal course of
events, expect to have people come
home in body bags,” she said.
“Its a terrible tragedy and we are
now looking for an urgent, detailed
explanation as to how such a
training exercise can go so terribly
wrong,” said New Zealand Defense
Minister Mark Burton. “This was a
live bomb basically dropped on observers. It shouldnt happen and we all
need to