19 Soldiers Injured In Friendly Fires In War Exercise

[jayjayjayjay]

This reminds me of the Ban Rom Klao border incident when there were rumours that the air force bombed their own troops by mistake. Doesn't inspire much admiration for their military prowess.

With the history between the Thai armed forces I wouldn't wannna be a foot soldier when the air support or naval support turned up...

A great picture on the front page of todays Bangkok Post, problem is, are we looking at body part vapourising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[johnsurin]

God, this could only happen here!!!!!!!! I know someones going to come up with other cases, but are these guys for real, this was done in front of the Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Anupong himself, what a joke!!!!!!!!

No, no the Americans could do shoot far more than that.

John.....

[Acharn]

God, this could only happen here!!!!!!!! I know someones going to come up with other cases, but are these guys for real, this was done in front of the Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Anupong himself, what a joke!!!!!!!!

This is the same "professional" Thai army that was responsible for the "mistakes" at the Tak Bai "incident" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tak_Bai_Incident) and still haven't managed to figure out who was in charge at the time

/ Priceless

?? You're wrong. They know exactly who was in charge. A Thai court has stated that they committed a crime. The Army, however, is conducting its own "investigation" and if they find anyone is at fault they will be court-martialed.

[Foggy Bottom]

Wish I could find the reference, but I remember that the US killed more Brit and Coalition personnel than the Iraqi army ever managed....

You cannot compare a situation from the battlefield and a choreographed show.

It was a live fire exercise in front of the Army Commander (obviously made some people nervous), lots of pyrotechnics probably, thus lots of smoke and confusion - just needs the ground troops to be a couple of dozen yards away from where they should be and close support fire is going to tear through them instead of going around them or over their heads.

... some would say a perfect simulation was the result - i.e. actual casualties inflicted - can't get more realistic warfare exercise than that, even if unintended. My sympathies to the injured and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I know from experience that no training exercise, or demonstration, can be perfectly choreographed and presented as there's always the random element when humans are involved .... the injuries resulting from the field gun trials at Earls Court Royal Military Show in London every year proved that. Never was there a more honed and practised set-piece drill than the field gun race, and still people lost fingers, broke arms and legs, dislocated limbs ... and even generally fcuked up beyond all excuses. Made great watching though.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

for want of a shoe the horse was lost,

for want of a horse the rider was lost,

for want of a rider the message was lost,

for want of a message the battle was lost ...

... etc

Edited January 29, 2009 by Gaz Chiangmai

[toret]

Some of you make me wanna puke. A terrible accident happens, and all you can do is berate thais and Thailand.

<deleted> off!

[john b good]

19 soldiers injured in friendly fires in war exercise

LOPBURI: -- Nineteen soldiers were injured, four severely, when they were shot at by a helicopter supposed to provide them air backup during a raid as part of a war exercise here Wednesday.

Sources said the mishap happened at about 10 am during an exercise on raiding by a battalion of the Lop Bur-based Special Warfare Command.

Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Anupong Paochinda witnessed the war exercise.

As part of the exercise, some 20 soldiers were flown on a helicopter to mount an attack on the enemies.

The soldiers were supposed to run to their destination while another helicopter was supposed to fire at the enemies to cover them. However, the friendly fires from the helicopter hit the soldiers.

They were rushed to the Ananda Mahidol Hospital.

-- The Nation 2009-01-28

The "keystone cops" couldn't have done it any better

[PeaceBlondie]

This forum rule has been mentioned: "extremely negative views of Thailand will not be tolerated."

We have gotten very critical of a big mistake that happened in Thailand and was very critically reported by the Thai press.

Let us admit that everybody makes mistakes. Our sympathy to those who lost face or their faces.

[astral]

Only in Thailand.

Sorry for all those injured.

[geriatrickid]

Only in Thailand.

Oh come on. It happens everywhere. Live ammunition training exercises are an important component of training. How else can a soldier gain experience? One of my colleagues had so called smoke cover land directly on his unit and he was a marked medical unit. The military, even in peacetime is a dangerous job.

Every military has multiple live ordinance casualties. People get shot, munitions explode in turrets or someone has loaded the charge incorrectly. Better these things happen in training than in action where the consequences would be more severe.

One of the leading causes of training injuries are vehicle collisions and roll overs. Does one prevent the thousands of training injuries in the military every year by saying don't practice driving skills or parachute or have target practice?

[henryalleman]

Why they use life ammunition in an such exercises is beyond me. In my army day's the air force and artillery only use life ammunition in special abandon shooting areas.

[TAWP]

Live ammo isn't used during shows, only during specific live ammo exercises.

Yes, it has happened in other countries but more times than not it has been due to direct human error of a selected few, as a squad leader that doesn't follow orders and move their team into LOF of the covering squad to the rear of them. And even then [this was a real case a few years ago] the number of individuals hit was one...not 19... it would indicate the amount of ammo spent in a short amount of time was high, which happens during covering fire-maneuvers. It's often dangerous due to people not aiming at specific targets but randomly launching multitude of shots until called upon to stop it. Not really recommended maneuver for a show...from a moving helicopter...

Count it out, to actually hit 19 soldiers the amount of ammo spent had the be...very high. Since the soldiers launching them most likely did not see them (couldn't ID that there was friendlies in the LOF) and the way bullets are spread at a maneuver like this... anyway, would be nice to have more info...

But, I'm almost impressed.

[yadetout]

The fatal training for D-Day,

Survivors recall 750 killed in D-day exercise

Disaster off Devon beach kept secret for 50 years

On April 28th 1944 a large-scale training exercise for D-Day went terribly wrong, resulting in the death of over 750 allied servicemen. this article explains about Exercise Tiger in more detail.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/apr/24/s...dworldwar.world

Edited February 1, 2009 by yadetout

[yadetout]

Live ammo isn't used during shows, only during specific live ammo exercises.

Soldier arrested after 16 shot at military show

A military shooting demonstration in south-east France ended in disaster last night after a soldier fired real bullets instead of blanks, injuring at least 16 people in the crowd, many of them members of soldiers' families

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/30/france

It happens everywhere...sadly

Edited February 1, 2009 by yadetout

[TAWP]

Live ammo isn't used during shows, only during specific live ammo exercises.

Soldier arrested after 16 shot at military show

A military shooting demonstration in south-east France ended in disaster last night after a soldier fired real bullets instead of blanks, injuring at least 16 people in the crowd, many of them members of soldiers' families

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/30/france

It happens everywhere...sadly

I can only surmise that reading isn't you strong point.

The article in fact supports my standpoint. The accident in France happened due to live ammo being introduced, un-knowingly by a sloppy soldier, into the show.

In the accident above in Thailand the live ammo was not introduced by accident but on purpose and every soldier was using it.