Aussie pilots refused to bomb 40 times
 

Our pilots refused to bomb 40 times
By Frank Walker
March 14, 2004

"Australia's F/A-18 pilots defied the orders of American commanders and refused to drop
their bombs on up to 40 missions during the invasion of Iraq, it can now be revealed.

In a remarkable account of how our airmen applied Australian rules of engagement,
an RAAF pilot has told The Sun-Herald each of the 14 RAAF Hornet pilots aborted three
to four bombing runs because intelligence given at pre-flight briefings did not concur with
what they found at the target."


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/ ... 18101.html


...good on them, even under that kind of pressure...their own training and ROE were foremost in their minds.

Always go with your instinct, you never know if you could be accountable for innocent people's deaths. GG aussies/

If they can use that loophole then so be it, but they better be damn sure that the targets were not threats to the allied invasion. The whole point of warfare is to kill the enemy, if they were uncertain that it was the enemy then fair enough. To refuse orders because they didn't agree with the war is mutiny & in my service people who do that can still end up on a piece of rope hanging from the yardarm. hake:

If it was the enemy and they didn't destroy the targets then the enemy could have gone on to kill our troops.

This makes it sound like the Aussies were pressured by American commanders to drop, even though they only refused to drop when visibility was poor, little air support, or not enough intel. The Americans supported them on their decision

The KangarooBoyz did good!

Good, if the americans were thinking like the aussies during the afganistan war they wouldn't of killed 4 canadian soldiers.

[quote="Fluffy_Bunny":8e8f1]If they can use that loophole then so be it, but they better be
damn sure that the targets were not threats to the allied invasion.[/quote:8e8f1]
well "being damn sure" is the difficult bit when what's at a site is not what intelligence has described....
the real question is did the Commanders accept and update their intelligence, or did they a re-order the
bombings to be carried out by US planes:

"Last night, The Sun-Herald could not confirm whether or not American field commanders raised objections
about the Australian pilots' actions, nor if US pilots later carried out the bombing runs themselves."

...obviously I can't imagine the Commanders being best pleased, I'll try to find more about their reaction.

Did good? They shouldve just dropped, maybe it wasnt a military target maybe it wasnt they had a chance to do what they dreamed of doing in the RAAF and they didnt take it...their problem...I would take every chance I could to drop some bombs!

eek:

[quote="Pvt.Pinhead":faea3]Did good? They shouldve just dropped, maybe it wasnt a military target maybe it wasnt they had a chance to do what they dreamed of doing in the RAAF and they didnt take it...their problem...I would take every chance I could to drop some bombs![/quote:faea3]

They dreamed of taking innocent civilians lives?
Wow, i didnt know that. Thanks for telling! eek:

[quote="Pvt.Pinhead":06b06]...I would take every chance I could to drop some bombs![/quote:06b06]

annoy:

[quote="Pvt.Pinhead":83e1f]What am I..?.. [/quote:83e1f]

[img]http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/chucktupp/homo.jpg[/img]

I think I found the n00b bastard who TKed my tank from the air in BF-1942 mad:

[quote="Sgt Stryker":ec524]I think I found the n00b bastard who TKed my tank from the air in BF-1942 mad:[/quote:ec524]

ROFFLES

[quote="Sgt Stryker":5e1b8]I think I found the n00b bastard who TKed my tank from the air in BF-1942 mad:[/quote:5e1b8]

LOL!