The incident happened in Paktika Province, Afghanistan when After spotting Taliban forces on a distant ridge line, U.S. Army mortar teams engage with 60mm mortars.
A simultaneous airstrike is called in which accidentally drops a 500-pound bomb on a U.S. Army infantry outpost, mistaking the position for Taliban fighters.
Luckily there were no friendly casualties in this rare incident, due to the First Sergeant’s decision to bring everyone to “stand to” before the drop.
“If it wasn’t for the decision of our First Sergeant, three of our guys would have died in that wooden building which was shredded by shrapnel.”
Luckily everyone was saved but the pilot did his best to kill everyone on the ground
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The technologies should be improved to avoid this type of mistake. Every post should have devices that provide the exact location of the fighter jet.
In an interview with Funker 530, the cameraman explained just how close they had come to serious injury or death, saying if the soldiers hadn’t been ordered to “stand to,” at least three people would have been killed.
Then we went up to check on the rest of the boys. Luckily our First Sergeant called up and put everyone on stand to, inadvertently saving the lives of at least 3 soldiers who would have been in the bay that had shrapnel sent through every inch of it including shearing holes into weapons. Once the smoke had cleared and realized no one was seriously injured, we just sitting there in awe as the anger started to build.
Funker 530 told the incident took place last year, and that the subjects of the video would prefer to remain anonymous.
Apparently, no further information has been released about why the pilot targeted the U.S. position instead of the Taliban’s.
Air strikes have previously led to friendly fire casualties in the 12 years of the Afghanistan war. In 2007, a U.S. strike killed three British soldiers.
In the past five years, a number of NATO-led strikes have also led to the deaths of Afghan police and soldiers.
