The Orlando Sentinel December 6, 2001
ERRANT BOMB KILLS 3 U.S. SOLDIERS
THE SATELLITE-GUIDED BOMB ALSO INJURED SEVERAL U.S. TROOPS AND ANTI-TALIBAN FIGHTERS WHEN IT STRUCK NEAR THEIR POSITIONS OUTSIDE KANDAHAR.
By Craig Gordon
WASHINGTON -- Three U.S. soldiers were killed and 19 were wounded Wednesday when their special-operations team ordered an airstrike against Taliban forces outside Kandahar but a 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb instead exploded just 100 yards from the Americans.
The Pentagon is investigating why the bomb -- used specifically for its "maximum blast effect," one official said -- struck so close to U.S. forces after being dropped from a B-52 bomber north of the Taliban stronghold. Five Afghans fighting the Taliban also were killed, and several others were wounded. The recently chosen interim leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was injured slightly by the blast while leading troops in the area.
It is the second time in about 10 days that a "smart" bomb caused U.S. casualties. Five U.S. special-operations troops were injured by a 500-pound bomb Nov. 26 when they called in bombers to quell a prison riot near Mazar-e Sharif.
"I, along with the rest of America, grieve for the loss of life in Afghanistan," President Bush said of the U.S. troops. "I want the families to know that they died for a noble and just cause and they defend freedom, and for that we are grateful."
The Pentagon on Wednesday night identified the dead as Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, of Tennessee; Sgt. First Class Daniel Henry Petithory, 32, of Massachusetts; and Staff Sgt. Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of California.
The accident brought to four the number of U.S. combat deaths inside Afghanistan since the campaign began Oct. 7. CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann was killed during the prison riot Nov. 25.
The "JDAM" bomb -- Joint Direct Attack Munitions -- travels toward its target with the help of satellite guidance, following a string of coordinates that can be programmed into the weapon with a computer keyboard while the plane is in flight.
"A 2,000-pound weapon is a devastating weapon," Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said at the Pentagon. "As a pilot, when I would drop a 2,000-pound weapon, I wanted at least 4,000 feet of separation from that weapon when it went off."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said several things could have gone wrong: the troops on the ground called in the wrong location; coordinates were transmitted or received improperly, or keyed into the weapon incorrectly; or there were mechanical problems, perhaps with one of the tail fins used to guide the bomb.
In Wednesday's bombing, two teams of special-operations forces had converged while working with opposition troops north of Kandahar, Stufflebeem said. They were coming under Taliban mortar fire trying to prevent their advance toward Kandahar.
Hoping to suppress the Taliban fire, the Americans ordered an airstrike, but the 2,000-pound bomb fell within a football field's length of their position.
CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters from a desert airstrip set up by Marines near Kandahar recovered the wounded Americans and Afghans. The American casualties were then transferred from the airstrip, code-named Rhino, to medical facilities. Two of the U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan, and a third died in transit to an undisclosed medical facility, the Pentagon said.
In its most accurate mode, the JDAM is designed to hit within 40 feet of its targets. But one weapons expert, John Pike, the director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense policy group in Washington, said those specifications are somewhat misleading. Roughly half of the bombs with that capability still would be expected to fall outside that 40-foot radius.
He compared it to the global-positioning systems now found in some cars, which use satellite coordinates to show locations and give directions. Those systems can't predict mechanical problems that could divert a trip -- in much the same way faulty electronics, a jammed fin and high winds could send this bomb off-course, Pike said.
Also, "if you put the wrong street address into your GPS car system, it will go straight to the wrong house," Pike said. Likewise, if troops program a bomb incorrectly, "you can very precisely hit the wrong target."
Copyright 2001 Sentinel Communications Co.
