In the movie Jarhead why do US fighter planes shoot at helpless US soldiers in the dessert?

Question

At the start of Dessert Storm, americans killed other american soldiers and exploded their jeeps and campground - it was obviously not a mistake as they are easily detectible and obvious. So why did this happen?

Answer 1

these incidents, known as blue on blue in the Marine Corps I believe, do happen. in the takeover of An Nasiriyah in operation iraqi freedom, there were a few friendly fire incidents in which Marines were killed. Marines as a general rule don't trust fighter jets, especially the AF A-10's which were at the center of those friendly fire incidents, but the truth is that war confusing and complicated. when the fog of war sets in, things sometimes go badly. the main problem here is not with the expertly trained pilots, but with the difficulty of communication in a war zone.

Answer 2

Actually, they were portraying a friendly fire incident....and it's obvious to everyone that knows what they are talking about that it is a mistake.  As for there being no Iraqis and "easily detectible and obvious"  how good are your recognition skills while doing a couple hundred miles per hour a half mile away?  Friendly fire incidents happen in every war, and will continue until there is a way to determine the location of every soldier at all times and communicate that instantaneously to everyone else.  

Answer 3

It was a piece of junk movie with and agenda.

Answer 4

Friendly fire is a long and troublesome military tradition. And while you think it's obvious looking at it from home years later, to the people involved in the real thing, it's not quite so obvious. At the speed a combat aircraft flies, it's only a matter of seconds to get out of position if you lose track of where you're going. And from the ranges they can shoot, you'd be lucky to tell if it's a jeep or a bus.

It was an accident, it was an error. It was NOT deliberate. All it takes is one person out of place to cause something like this.

To give you an idea how common friendly fire is, during the invasion of Iraq, the British forces suffered more casualties from US friendly fire than from the enemy. Now if you think those were all deliberate, you must think the same thing about car accidents. After all, it's broad daylight, and it's not like you can't see something the size of a car.

Answer 5

It's a movie.

Answer 6

Its all very well criticising people, but until you go to war, you don't know what it is truly like. Soldiers are the ones that have the right to criticise. They know what should of happened and how it can be corrected to prevent future incidents.  

Answer 7

That happens quite often, not just with jets but also with ground troops, patrols coming into contact with one another. Everyone's moving at high speed, everyone's sleep deprived, everyone's on alert, tensions might be high, mistakes happen.

Answer 8

Not so obvious that they were US military at the speeds the planes travel at. There were friendly fire incidents, things happen and sometimes accommodations to help prevent such things from happening don't work, we do our best but we are human and not 100% fallible.

Vet-USAF

Answer 9

Back before the current war when stuff like this would get aired once in awhile, I watched a Discovery Channel series on the Gulf War '91 and they showed some footage from the night vision camera on an AH-64 Apache and the corresponding radio chat.

The gunner came upon a few tents and some trucks, and radioed that he'd spotted a camp, then gave the coordinates.  Base radioed back that he was clear to fire, that there were no friendlies in the area.  He let rip with his cannon and fired a few rockets; you saw one of the tents and trucks go up, and saw people scatter from the tent, some of them cut down with the cannon.  All of a sudden, a distress call comes over the radio channel: an American soldier, radioing that his camp is under attack and they need help.

The gunner stops firing and the helicopter flies over.  The gunner is saying, "No... no... those weren't our guys... oh, ****... oh, no..." as they close in and realize they just mistakenly attacked an American camp.

Miscommunications happen, and no matter how many things are in place to make sure we know who's who, friendly fire does happen, unfortunately.  War isn't simple, and in situations like that, there are all sorts of questions: whose fault was it?  Was it the gunner, who made visual contact - you couldn't tell they were Humvees or deuce and a halfs from the camera - which is what he was looking through.  He radioed base and they told him there were no friendlies around and they gave him the okay - was it them?  Was it the person who failed to communicate that there was, indeed, a camp set up there?  There are so many questions and so many answers that it's not as simple as it'd seem at face value.

Answer 10

My recruiter showed me different jobs in the army.. and i saw that one of them is a job where u will organize and know the geographical areas where there are friendlies. Fack it even a highschool can organize that. All they have to do is tell them where they are and then the base will mark the area where the US soldiers are at. That radio guy that gave a go signal to shoot at the UNKNOWN camp according to the guy above me should be ripped apart by dobermans infront of the family of those who died coz of that fackin idiot radio guy.