Army Ranger Soldiers Deaths Possible Friendly Fire

Army Ranger from Kettering dies in Afghanistan anti-ISIS raid Pentagon says
Military investigates possible friendly fire
WCPO Staff
Apr 28, 2017

An Army Ranger from Ohio died in Afghanistan Thursday, the Pentagon said in a news release.

Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, of Kettering, was killed "supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel" in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, according to a release from U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

Thomas and one other soldier, Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, of Bloomington, Ill., were killed as the result of "small arms fire while engaged in dismounted operations," the Pentagon said in a release. Both soldiers were stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia. A third soldier was wounded.
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UK: Friendly Fire Cost Soldier Leg in Iraq, Accused Got More in Disability Payments?

What an insult! Soldier who lost his leg in 'friendly fire' is paid £50,000 but the officer accused of shooting him gets £500,000 for the 'stress' of the inquiry
Daily Mail
By MARK NICOL DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE MAIL
17 October 2015

CSgt Albert Thomson had his leg torn apart by 15 rounds on patrol in Iraq
Had his leg amputated in the field and was later awarded £50,000 by Army
Captain Thomas Henderson who shot him said machine gun was to blame
He was blamed then won an appeal and was awarded £500,000 for stress
Labour's Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones said it was an 'injustice'

Colour Sergeant Albert Thomson’s life was devastated when his left leg was torn apart by 15 machine-gun rounds fired at close range while he was on patrol in southern Iraq. He received a one-off payment of £50,000 for losing a lower limb, in line with Army tariffs for frontline injuries

A British Army officer accused of shooting another soldier in a friendly-fire incident has been secretly paid £500,000 in compensation for stress – ten times the sum received by his comrade whose leg was amputated after the tragic accident.

Colour Sergeant Albert Thomson’s life was devastated when his left leg was torn apart by 15 machine-gun rounds fired at close range while he was on patrol in southern Iraq. Battlefield surgeons removed his leg as they worked desperately to save his life.

He received a one-off payment of £50,000 for losing a lower limb, in line with Army tariffs for frontline injuries.

But by contrast, The Mail on Sunday can reveal the officer accused of firing the weapon, Captain Thomas ‘Tam’ Henderson, 48, has been awarded £500,000 in an out-of-court settlement after suing the Ministry of Defence for stress suffered following the blunder in March 2003.

Last night, Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones described the discrepancy between the payment as ‘an injustice’.
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Chicago White Sox Honor Fallen Soldier's Family

Soldier killed in Afghanistan honored at Sox game
Chicago Sun Times
WRITTEN BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
POSTED: 08/28/2015,

When the White Sox invited Pam Toppen to attend Friday night’s game with her family, she was grateful for the invitation in honor of her late son, 19-year-old U.S. Army PFC Aaron Toppen.

Relatives of Aaron Toppen were given a framed White Sox jersey at Friday's game. They are (left to right): Aaron Toppen's brother-in-law Jerry Gralewski; his sister Amanda, holding 6-month-old Aubrey; his uncle Jack Winter, holding the jersey; his mother, Pam Toppen; and his sister, Amy Toppen. His niece Taylor is seated. Aaron Toppen died last year in Afghanistan.
Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

But she said she never expected the plush suite behind home plate, or the surprise presentation during the Sox vs. Mariners game at Cellular Field — when the family was called out on the field to receive a standing ovation from the crowd, and a framed Sox jersey in honor of Aaron, a baseball fanatic.

“It was just unbelievable,” she said, teary-eyed, after the family came off the field in the second-inning.

“When the crowd gave him a standing ovation, and the Sox gave us his jersey, the tears started flowing,” she added. “Our mission in life is to pay it forward, to help others. We could be mad about what happened, but that’s not who we want to be. And that won’t bring Aaron back.”

Toppen, 55, of southwest suburban Mokena, lost her son last June 9, when he was killed in Afghanistan — along with four American Special Operations Forces members and one Afghani soldier — in the deadliest instance of friendly fire since that war began in 2001.

An Air Force B-1 bomber airstrike mistakenly killed Toppen and the others during a battle with insurgent forces in southern Afghanistan. An Army investigation blamed poor communications.
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Young soldier killed in Afghanistan, forever part of Illinois community

MOKENA NAMES STREET FOR FALLEN SOLDIER AARON TOPPEN
ABC 7 News
August 30, 2014

(Courtesy John Downs, Mokena village administrator)

MOKENA, Ill. (WLS) -- Residents gathered for a ceremony Saturday to officially re-name a portion of a Mokena road for fallen soldier Aaron Toppen.

Mokena and Frankfort townships re-named part of Townline Road "PFC Aaron Toppen Memorial Drive," which leads to the Toppen family's home.

Toppen was one of four service members killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on June 9. He was 19.
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AARON TOPPEN, MOKENA SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN, LAID TO REST
Senior Pastor Dr. Tim Harlow said the young soldier died doing what he wanted to do.

"He had a tattoo on his chest that had a cross with dog tags draped across. It says, 'For those I love, I sacrifice,' an army motto. The dog tags were both his grandparents' dog tags," Harlow said. "I mean, that's who he was."

Five soldiers killed by "friendly fire" bomb drop in Afghanistan

'Friendly fire' kills 5 American service members in Afghanistan
CNN
By Ed Payne and Masoud Popalzai
June 10, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
More than 2,300 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan
The incident also killed an Afghan soldier
A U.S. defense department spokesman says he has no comment
In April, 5 British service members were killed in a chopper crash

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Five American service members were killed in southern Afghanistan, when a coalition jet called in to help ward off a Taliban attack mistakenly bombed them, an Afghan official said Tuesday.

The five were killed along with an Afghan soldier in Zabul province, said the province's Police Chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwanai.

According to NATO, the troops were conducting a security operation. Such operations have been stepped up ahead of the Afghanistan's presidential runoff election, which will take place on Saturday.

The service members' unit came in contact with enemy forces. That's when the casualties occurred, the NATO statement said -- but then it added this line: "Tragically, there is the possibility that fratricide may have been involved."
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UPDATE
Pvt. Aaron Toppen, of Mokena, was one of five U.S. troops killed Monday during a security operation in southern Afghanistan, his sister said.

Former U.S. Army Ranger thinks he may have shot Pat Tillman

Former U.S. soldier says his friendly-fire shots might have killed Tillman
Reuters
Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis
Sun Apr 20, 2014

(Reuters) - A former U.S. Army Ranger who was in the same platoon as ex-NFL player Pat Tillman has stated in a television interview that he believes he might have fired the shots that killed Tillman in a 2004 friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan.

Steven Elliott, 33, told ESPN program "Outside the Lines" in an interview scheduled to air on Sunday that he regrets joining other soldiers in firing on the spot where Tillman had taken position during a chaotic incident in a mountainous area.

"It is possible, in my mind, that I hit him," Elliott said.

Tillman gave up a multimillion dollar career as a defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals football team to enlist in the military in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks and served in the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, becoming one of the U.S. military's most high-profile service members.

The U.S. military initially said he was shot by enemy fighters in an ambush, but a subsequent investigation determined he was killed by friendly fire.

Elliott's comments to "Outside the Lines" mark his first public statements on Tillman's death. ESPN reported that two other soldiers who previously acknowledged firing at Tillman's position had declined to comment for the sports program.
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Army probes CIB given to lt. who shot soldier

Army probes CIB given to lt. who shot soldier
Award upsets father of friendly fire victim
By Joe Gould - Staff writer Posted : Sunday May 6, 2012

The Army is investigating the awarding of a Combat Infantryman Badge to a lieutenant who fatally shot a member of his squad, Pfc. David H. Sharrett, during a 2008 friendly fire incident in Iraq.

Then-Lt. Timothy R. Hanson was awarded the badge for his service Jan. 16, 2008, according to Army orders supplied to Sharrett’s father, David Sharrett. On that day, Hanson led a squad into a fierce predawn firefight in which he mistakenly shot Sharrett. After the battle, Hanson left unhurt on a helicopter before Pfc. Sharrett was found.

“This could not have been just a horrible faux pas,” said the elder Sharrett, of Oakton, Va. “They were well aware of what had happened, and this guy was given a medal for killing my kid and leaving him to die.”

Hanson has since been promoted to captain and joined a Reserve unit in Wisconsin. He was initially given a local reprimand and last year was recommended for a harsher general officer reprimand in the Army’s third investigation of the incident.
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Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Corpsman Benjamin Rast killed by friendly fire

2 US servicemen mistakenly killed by drone attack in Afghanistan
NBC: Pair died in missile airstrike in an apparent case of mistaken identity

By Jim Miklaszewski
Chief Pentagon correspondent
NBC News
updated 4/11/2011 2:04:23 PM ET
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WASHINGTON — A U.S. Marine reservist and a Navy corpsman were killed in a drone airstrike in Afghanistan last week in an apparent case of friendly fire, U.S. military officials tell NBC News.

Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Corpsman Benjamin Rast were reportedly killed Wednesday by a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. Air Force Predator in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity, NBC reported. Smith and Rast were part of a Marine unit moving in to reinforce fellow Marines under heavy fire from enemy forces outside Sangin in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
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2 US servicemen mistakenly killed by drone attack

Pfc. David Sharrett's family lied to about death in Iraq

Army Lied About How My Son Died in Iraq: Friendly-fire Victim Was 'Misidentified' as Enemy Gunman
Posted April 1, 2009
BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Army brass in Iraq whitewashed an incident of a soldier killed by his own lieutenant by blaming the dead hero, stonewalling his family and promoting his killer, the Daily News has learned.


The friendly-fire victim, Pfc. David Sharrett, 27, of Oakton, Va., was "misidentified" by 1stLt. Timothy Hanson as an enemy gunman during a botched night raid Jan. 16, 2008, against an Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold north of Baghdad, the Army belatedly acknowledged.

Sharrett bled to death as his buddies searched frantically for him for 25 minutes after the firefight ended.

For four months after the Army knew the truth, it still insisted to Sharrett's father that he was killed by enemy fire - and gave only atemporary wrist slap to Hanson under pressure from the families of Sharrett and two other G.I.s killed in the clash.

After The News uncovered new video evidence and raised questions, a 101st Airborne Division general said the probe into Sharrett's death may reopen.

"The final decisions and dispositions have yet to be made," Brig. Gen. Steve Townsend said.

Sharrett's family claims top officers in the legendary "Screaming Eagles" division initially - and angrily - denied friendly fire was involved, claiming for months that insurgents killed Sharrett when his eight-man team tried to capture six suspects in a rural thicket.
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Army Lied About How My Son Died in Iraq

British troops in Afghanistan injured by friendly fire

British troops in Afghanistan injured by friendly fire
James Sturcke guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 10, 2008

Nine British troops have been injured in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said tonight.

The soldiers were mistaken for Taliban forces by a British Apache helicopter during a skirmish yesterday in Helmand province.

The most seriously injured soldier has been airlifted back to the UK and is in a stable condition, the MoD said. Another two are under observation at the British field hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan.

The remaining casualties suffered light injuries and have returned to duties.

The "blue-on-blue" incident happened when a routine British patrol requested air support after encountering hostile forces near a forward operating base called Gibraltar, the MoD said.
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Praise does not replace care for wounded Marine

USMC Sgt. Eddie Ryan in his Ellenville home on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Sgt. Ryan is the wounded Iraq War veteran whose home therapy aide benefits have been ended by the Veteran's Administration.
THR/CHET GORDON

V.A. offers limited options for wounded Marine's family
Government cites a lack of qualified aides for Ryans

By Paul Brooks
Times Herald-Record
April 17, 2008
ELLENVILLE — A week ago, wounded Marine Sgt. Eddie Ryan was at a Marine foundation gala in Manhattan, basking in praise from the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Friday night his mom, Angie, had to cover the overnight shift to care for her brain-injured son because there was no aide to do it.

Saturday night was the same. So was Sunday, the three-year anniversary of the day two bullets from an American tank ripped through his brain in Iraq.


Monday, the Albany VA Center which coordinates and pays for Eddie’s care called. The worker said they can’t find any new aides to help out the family. Wednesday, the VA told Angie there is no new physical therapist for the bed-ridden Marine either, she said. Only one therapist remains of the four he is supposed to have.

“This is the worst it has ever been,” she said. “How do you look at 30 agencies for a physical therapist and come up with nothing? How is this going to work? What are we going to do?”
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