The term "friendly fire" was coined in the 1970s but the theme appears in literature from ancient times to the present. It begins the narrative in Aeschylus's Persians and Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story. It marks the turning point in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the Chanson de Roland, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato. It is the subject of transformative disclosure in Jaan Kross's Czar's Madman, Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods and A.B. Yehoshua's Friendly Fire. In some stories, events propel the characters into a friendly-fire catastrophe, as in Thomas Taylor's A Piece of this Country and Oliver Stone's 1986 film Platoon. This study examines friendly fire in a broad range of literary contexts.
The term "friendly fire" was coined in the 1970s but the theme appears in literature from ancient times to the present. It begins the narrative in Aeschylus's Persians and Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story. It marks the turning point in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the Chanson de Roland, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato. It is the subject of transformative disclosure in Jaan Kross's Czar's Madman, Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods and A.B. Yehoshua's Friendly Fire. In some stories, events propel the characters into a friendly-fire catastrophe, as in Thomas Taylor's A Piece of this Country and Oliver Stone's 1986 film Platoon. This study examines friendly fire in a broad range of literary contexts.
War is often depicted in the textbooks as a well-orchestrated, albeit violent, exercise in which opposing units strive to achieve tactical and strategic objectives. That each side will suffer casualties in the process is taken for granted; they are the inevitable, if regretable, consequence of such a deadly undertaking. That each side is almost certain to suffer casualties inflicted by its own forces is not generally taken for granted, Yet, in each of America's wars, especially those of the twentieth century, a significant number of soldiers have been killed or wounded as the result of friendly fire. The fact that the percentage of casualties resulting from friendly fire from World War I through Vietnam has been extremely low does not make the accidental killing or wounding of one's own troops any less tragic or unpalatable. Nor does it offer much consolation to the commander responsible for the lives of his troops or to the soldier who runs the risk of falling victim to the fire of his own forces. It may well be that in the "fog of war" friendly fire casualties are inevitable, but this solemn observation does not absolve the armed forces from doing everything in their power to eliminate the problem. To be sure, each branch of the Army and each of the Armed Services employ measures calculated to prevent incidents of friendly fire. But such measures offer only partial solutions, especially on the modern battlefield where joint and combined forces operate under often obscure conditions. A more comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of friendly fire is needed. That one has not yet appeared is attributable to several factors, foremost among them being the nature of the evidenceon which such a study must rely. The required raw data are scattered throughout a variety of primary and secondary, official and unofficial sources. Before one can undertake a serious and comprehensive analysis of friendly fire, these data must be found and brought together in one place. In Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War, LTC Charles R. Shrader has taken a major step toward the compilation of these data. From his survey of much of the existing literature on World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, he has extracted examples of friendly fire involving U.S. ground forces and has categorized them according to types of incidents. In his well-informed narrative, he draws tentative conclusions about the causes and effects of friendly fire and offers recommendations for those who expect to study the subject further. He has, in short, produced a superb reference book and a springboard for a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of this grim and complex problem. William A. Stofft Colonel, Armor Director, Combat Studies Institute
From surveys of much of the existing literature on World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the author has extracted examples of friendly fire involving U.S. ground forces and has categorized them according to types of incidents. In this narrative, he draws tentative conclusions about the causes and effects of friendly fire and offers recommendations for those who expect to study the subject further.
On April 14, 1994, two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters accidentally shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopters over Northern Iraq, killing all twenty-six peacekeepers onboard. In response to this disaster the complete array of military and civilian investigative and judicial procedures ran their course. After almost two years of investigation with virtually unlimited resources, no culprit emerged, no bad guy showed himself, no smoking gun was found. This book attempts to make sense of this tragedy--a tragedy that on its surface makes no sense at all. With almost twenty years in uniform and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior, Lieutenant Colonel Snook writes from a unique perspective. A victim of friendly fire himself, he develops individual, group, organizational, and cross-level accounts of the accident and applies a rigorous analysis based on behavioral science theory to account for critical links in the causal chain of events. By explaining separate pieces of the puzzle, and analyzing each at a different level, the author removes much of the mystery surrounding the shootdown. Based on a grounded theory analysis, Snook offers a dynamic, cross-level mechanism he calls "practical drift"--the slow, steady uncoupling of practice from written procedure--to complete his explanation. His conclusion is disturbing. This accident happened because, or perhaps in spite of everyone behaving just the way we would expect them to behave, just the way theory would predict. The shootdown was a normal accident in a highly reliable organization.
“A fine novel of loss and hope” set in modern Israel and East Africa, from the author of A Woman in Jerusalem (TheBoston Globe). During Hanukkah, Ya’ari, an engineer, and his wife, Daniela, are spending an unaccustomed week apart after years of marriage. While he’s kept busy juggling the day-to-day needs of his elderly father, his children, and his grandchildren, Daniela flies from Tel Aviv to East Africa to mourn the death of her older sister. There she confronts her anguished brother-in-law, Yirmi, whose soldier son was killed six years earlier in the West Bank by “friendly fire.” Yirmi is now managing a team of African researchers digging for the bones of man’s primate ancestors—as he desperately strives to detach himself from every shred of his identity, Jewish and Israeli. From an author who has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, this is “a haunting book . . . that will resonate for a long time in the minds of its readers” (The Washington Post Book World). “As in each of his wisely tragicomic novels, Yehoshua orchestrates nearly absurd predicaments that serve as conduits to Israel’s confounding conflicts, which so intensely and sorrowfully encapsulate our endless struggle for peace and belonging.” —Booklist
More than 100 true stories of comrade killing comrade: defective ammunition accidental shootings blinding smoke deliberate fire upon comrade mistaken uniforms inexperienced troops unknown passwords On May 2, 1863, Stonewall Jackson was on the verge of the greatest victory of his career. Shortly before 10 P.M. he rode through the woods near Chancellorsville, Virginia, to find where the Federals had established their line. As he returned, his own men, in the noise and confusion, opened fire, woulding Jackson several times. One of the Civil War's first heroes died eight days later. Stonewall Jackson's death is but one example of Confederate killing Confederate or Yankee killing Yankee. No war was as intense and chaotic as the American Civil War. Author Webb Garrison has brought together Jackson's story and 150 other instances of friendly fire in this unique book that strips away the romanticism of the Civil War. "[With] night setting in, it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe. Several of our own command were killed by our own friends." ?Ambrose Wright at Malvern Hill "I thought it better to kill a Union man or two than to lose the effect of my moral suasion." ?Union Officer Louis M. Goldsborough "Whilst in this position my regiment was shelled by our own artillery. The officer in command should be made to pay the penalty for this criminal conduct." ?Confederate Col. Edward Willis, speaking of a battle at Gettysburg "Seemingly not content with the speed that the enemy were slaughtering us, one of our own batteries commenced a heavy and destructive fire on us." ?Union Maj. Thomas S. Tate, speaking of Tupelo, Mississippi
Although there are no absolute solutions, the Department of Defense can significantly reduce fratricide by modifying current doctrine and incorporating emerging technologies. This paper addresses situational awareness, target identification and technology related issues. USMC, Command and control, C2, C3, C4I, Joint command and control, Fratricide, Doctrine, Target identification, Combat identification.
