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Thursday, December 09, 2010

Soldier killed by US friendly fire was a New Zealander in British army

A paratrooper killed when an American fighter fired on friendly forces in Afghanistan was a New Zealander serving with British forces.

Private John 'Jack' Howard was serving with 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment in Nad 'Ali

By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan and Paul Chapman in Wellington 7:00AM GMT 07 Dec 2010

He has been named as Private John "Jack" Howard, from Wellington.

It is understood Private Howard was hit by cannon fire from the American F18 jet during a firefight with the Taliban in poor weather conditions.

The troops from the specialist Brigade Reconnaissance Force called in close air support after they came under small arms fire from an insurgent ambush five miles west of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah

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Historical Fact

"Of the more than 274,000 officers and men who served in the army during the Spanish-American War and the period of demobilization, 5,462 died in the various theaters of operation and in camps in the a U.S. Only 379 of the deaths were battle casualties, the remainder being attributed to disease and other causes."

Source: Encyclopedia of American History by Richard Morris

In 1898, thousands of soldiers got food poisoning from meat packed by Armour and Company and sold to the Army. There are no figures on how many of the five thousand noncombat deaths were caused by this.

The Oxford Companion to American Military History estimates that between 2 percent and 25 percent of the casualties in America's wars are attributable to friendly fire.