April 06, 2004

Sniper team cleared in 2003 shooting death

By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer

A Marine Force Reconnaissance sniper team that shot and killed a Marine corporal a year ago in Baghdad, Iraq, has been cleared of all wrongdoing, according to a military investigation report made public Monday.
The report, released by U.S. Central Command, blamed lack of communication and failure to enforce equipment regulations for the April 14, 2003, death of Cpl. Jason D. Mileo, 20.

Mileo, a rifleman with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, was on a nighttime patrol in Baghdad when a Marine sniper serving with his unit shot him from a rooftop with an M40A3 sniper rifle. The shot ripped through Mileo’s back and chest, killing him immediately.

The report said the snipers believed the corporal, who was lying prone on a rooftop, to be an enemy combatant and a threat to U.S. forces in the area.

“There was nothing to indicate that the man was a Marine and the observation team had no information that would cause them to question their conclusion,” the report concluded.

The night of the shooting, the sniper and spotter, both staff sergeants whose names were removed from the report, stood watch on a rooftop at the battalion’s command post in Baghdad’s Ministry of Taxation building.

As they scanned the dark surrounding neighborhood, the two spotted an individual they thought was an Iraqi enemy fighter preparing to attack U.S. troops.

The armed man was staking out the area from a green-domed building that resembled a mosque; the religious structures were deemed off-limits to U.S. forces under the rules of engagement for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The man, they said, wore no military gear and appeared to be smoking and carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. While observing the man, the snipers said they heard sounds of an apparent gunfight nearby and believed the armed man was connected to it.

What they did not know, the report said, was that a six-man Marine patrol had been dispatched from the ministry compound earlier that evening to ambush Iraqi Fedayeen militia forces believed to be using the mosque-like building as a base of operations.

This patrol was Mileo’s and the building was a community center — not a mosque. Mileo and his teammates were there waiting for enemy forces to return.

The armed person the snipers were observing through their night-vision scopes was Mileo, who for unknown reasons had taken off his body armor and Kevlar helmet.

Investigating officers blamed the misunderstanding on bad communication within the battalion, which failed to notify the snipers of specific patrols that night and on Mileo’s failure to wear protective gear.

“He did not have the distinctive Marine silhouette,” the report states.

“Exacerbating the confusion was the misunderstanding about whether the domed building was a protected mosque where Marines would not normally establish an observation post,” it said.

Fellow Marines on the patrol described Mileo as a stellar Marine and said they did not know why he took off his protective gear.

The report stated that Mileo had been issued an extra-small flak jacket with extra large armor plate inserts and that it may have been difficult for the corporal to lie in the prone position with his flak jacket on, because the plates would have ridden up to the his face and chin making it difficult to employ his weapon.

While the report did not fault the sniper team for its actions, the investigating officer recommended that a company-grade officer in the unit receive a non-punitive letter of caution for failing to ensure that the battalion was aware of and tracking the patrol.

The report recommended also that Mileo’s squad leader receive non-judicial punishment for his failure to tell the corporal to put on his flak jacket and helmet.

The squad leader said he was aware Mileo had taken off his gear, but could not correct him because he would have had to yell to the roof and risk giving up the squad’s position.

 Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC

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 Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC

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Leadership failure + dumb ass = fratricide

No, I'm not being sarcastic... this idiot was out of uniform and smoking while supposedly conducting an ambush? Who the f... was his SL, PSG, PL, 1SG, CO, CSM, BC, and drill sergeant?

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

.Commence rant.

Well done Khyros.

I like the use of the math formula.  How many times have we seen helicopters (or airliners) crash, or soldiers die in and out of combat, and the resulting investigation is almost never:

"A" happened and someone died.

Usually the post-mortum goes like this:

"A" happened.  Well, "A" alone would not have caused the deaths, but;

"B" happened. Now "B" alone would have been a close call, but then;

"C" existed. Once "A" and "B" happened, while "C" existed, the deaths were inevitable.

So you are right on when you point out that leadership ("A") together with poor communications ("B") together with an ambush in progress ("C") = dead Marine. He probably never knew what hit him.  But he would have been pissed if some "chickens--t Gunny" made him get into uniform.

S.P.O.F.

I've told the many jumpmaster courses I have taught: "We have engineered almost all SPOF "Single Points of Failure" out of the system. You will have to work hard to kill yourself --  or one of your jumpers -- in a jump accident.  You will have to break rule 1, then rule 2, then rule 3.  And any one of those rules may seem trivial. So have the discipline to do the right thing everytime."

As the guy on the radio says "That's my opinion, and it ought to be yours."

.End of rant.