Norris concluded that now retired, General Hostage and Air Force Chief of Staff General James Welsh bear the bulk of responsibility for the situation. Norris noted that Harrigian “never implied or stated that any of those agencies were responsible for this endeavor though those two individuals are the ones who killed those five individuals in my opinion. These individuals are responsible for training and equipping the USAF crews sent anywhere to conduct CAS. They clearly failed in all areas, but yet have zero accountability.”
In June 2014, 5 days after five U.S. Special Forces operators were killed by an errant bomb delivered by a B-1 Lancer bomber, Russell B. Carpenter, CMSgt (retired), addressed the failure of the Air Force in a letter to the editor of the Arizona Daily Independent.
Related article: A-10 Preferred By JTACS For “Troops In Contact” Fight
“The Air Force contends the B-1s, F-15Es, and F-16s can carry the Close Air Support mission until the F-35 Close Air Support variant is produced sometime in or after 2022,” wrote Carpenter. “However many JTACs contend that “fast moving” aircraft such as the F-35 are ill suited for the Close Air Support role and are often ineffective in delivering ordnance against maneuvering or close targets. Such as demonstrated by the tragic B-1 airstrike in Afghanistan this week. You simply cannot take “close” out of Close Air Support. A-10 critics point to the A-10s age at nearing forty years old and its systems obsolescence. However supporters point to the far cheaper economic cost of flying the A-10 and its recent $2.5 billion dollar upgrade that make it a viable aircraft for many years to come. Supporters also point to the aircraft’s singular ruggedness to take a punch and get low enough to sort through the haze of battle. Something technology, the pilots and JTACs contend, simply cannot do.”
Other outlets did not report on the incident until at least September 2014. Those later reports offered only Harrigian’s report and the Air Force’s spin. On September 4, 2014, the Air Force Times reported:
The friendly fire incident that killed five American soldiers and one Afghan soldier in June was caused by failures from the “key members” of the ground team who called in an airstrike from a B-1B Lancer, according to an accident investigation report released Thursday.
A team of U.S. and Afghan soldiers on June 9 were providing security for the Afghan runoff elections in the area of Arghandab when one of the teams came under attack. During the attack, key leaders, including a joint terminal attack controller and the ground force commander, mixed up friendly and enemy locations and incorrectly believed that the bomber’s targeting system could identify friendly locations.
“The key members executing the close air support mission collectively failed to effectively execute the fundamentals, which resulted in poor situational awareness and improper target identification” U.S. Central Command investigating Officer Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian wrote in the report. “While this complex combat situation presented a challenging set of circumstances, had the team understood their system’s capabilities, executed standard tactics, techniques and procedures and communicated effectively, this tragic incident was avoidable.”
On September 4, 2014, the “democracy dies in darkness” Washington Post, reported nearly the same version of events. There was no mention of whether or not the B-1 could successfully perform the mission it carried that fateful day.
Carpenter wrote about the deaths of those five brave Americans in part to bring attention to the fact that the Air Force was lying about the ability of the B-1 to provide Close Air Support. Carpenter wrote, “The Special Forces operators who were ambushed by Taliban forces were in desperate need of rescue and turned to the Air Force for assistance when they were killed by the air strike.”