Saturday, October 12, 2019
Tommys Day :: essays research papers
     U.S., Kuwait ask why  bombing went terribly wrong    WASHINGTON-- A team of Kuwaiti  and U.S. investigators sorted  through evidence on Tuesday trying  to learn how and why a U.S. Navy  jet dropped a 500-pound bomb near  observers at a training range, killing  six of them.     The F/A-18 Hornet was taking part  in a twice-yearly training flight on  Monday when the accident  happened.     The training flights have been a  regularly scheduled part of the  Persian Gulf area military  experience for 10 years -- since a multinational force repelled an Iraqi  invasion of Kuwait and pledged to keep the tiny oil-rich nation safe in the  aftermath.     But on Monday, something went wrong. A Navy pilot practicing "close air  support" for ground troops suddenly dropped live ordnance near an  observation area, according to the U.S. Central Command.     The blast killed five Americans and a New Zealander, 27-year-old acting  Maj. John McNutt. The names of the five Americans killed have not been  released. Five other Americans and two Kuwaitis were injured.     Two of the injured have already been released, and some of the injured  Americans were evacuated to a U.S. airbase in Germany.     Central Command appointed an investigation board to arrive later this week  in Kuwait, where U.S. and Kuwaiti officials were already trying to learn  whether the error that led to the accident came about in the air -- the pilot's  mistake -- or somewhere on the ground, either from faulty direction for air  traffic controllers or a tragic miscommunication that put the observers in  the line of fire.     "We will work hard to take care of the families involved, and to find out how  such an accident could occur," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H.  Rumsfeld said in a statement.     'It shouldn't happen'    Meanwhile, New Zealand Prime  Minister Helen Clark pressed for  answers into the death of her  country's soldier.     "We don't, in the normal course of  events, expect to have people come  home in body bags," she said.     "It's a terrible tragedy and ... we are  now looking for an urgent, detailed  explanation as to how such a  training exercise can go so terribly  wrong," said New Zealand Defense  Minister Mark Burton. "This was a  live bomb basically dropped on observers. It shouldn't happen and we all  need to know precisely what went wrong."     Kuwaiti defense chief of staff Lt. Gen. Ali al-Muaman apologized for the  incident, pledged a thorough investigation, and said that the accident would  not stop further joint military exercises in the region.     U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking in Florida, also offered  condolences and led a moment of silence before a speech promoting his  tax cut.     Second Navy accident in a month    					    
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