Turkey says it has struck targets in Syria in response to mortar strike across border

[happyslug]

4. Whats a couple of Mortar rounds between friends?

Last edited Thu Oct 4, 2012, 11:43 AM - Edit history (1)

Should be a re-bulk to the Syrian Ambassador to Turkey, but can be an excuse for something more.

Please note, Turkey does not seem to care that the Government of Syria fired the Mortars (It could be the opposition) but using it as an excuse to do something in Syria.

After I wrote the above, it was reported that three Children and two women were killed by the Mortars. If the Mortar rounds had landed in an open field, not a problem, but these rounds KILLED people, someone has to pay for that. When I was in the Field Artillery we were told that every round that we fired, we were responsible for. i.e. if we made a mistake and someone was killed it meant imprisonment. Thus extensive records were kept, to show we did what we were suppose to be doing and if a mistake was made, it closed down the whole base till it was found what caused the mistake. This can last for hours as everyone is told to stand down and the paperwork was collected and examined (My unit once fired a round that NOT only missed the target, it went outside the impact area, it went outside the base and landed on the State Game Lands behind the base (Which the Appalachian trail went through). After several hours, the problem was discovered, the gun involved had an inexperience Soldier who when told to do "Charge Two" for the round. We were firing M101A1s in Fort Indian-town Gap PA, which is limited to Charge two for it is a small base. The Solider instead of leaving two Charges inside the base (Which is Charge Two for 105mm Howitzers) just removed the last two charges, leaving five Charges in the base instead of the intended two. This problem closed the whole base for the whole day till it was discovered what went wrong. The guns could have be moved, the rounds around the guns could not be moved, the Gun Crew could not leave the gun. Things like the Powder Pit by the gun could NOT be touched. They all has to sit around till the investigation was over.

I was in a National Guard Unit and in the 1980s, when the above incident occurred my unit was using the M101A1 105mm Howitzers. The M101A1 was limited to 6 charges (Bags of Gundpowder that could be removed to reduce the range of the Round fired, the bags removed were put into a "Powder Pit" as the guns were fired, when it came time to leave the firing site, then and only then were the excess charges gathered, lined up one after another and set on fire to make sure all of them were gone). The M101A1 was designed to take only a Charge 6, when first designed in the late 1930s. In the 1960s the US Army decided to replace the M101A1 with the lighter M102 105mm Howizer. While the M102 was lighter (1 1/2 tons compared to the M101A1 2 1/2 tons) it could take an additional Charge of powder, thus the 105mm rounds started to come with Seven Charges instead of the previous Six Charges (The M119 which replaced the M102 can fire an additional charge over the M102, thus can fire a Charge 8, thus 105mm Rounds today come with Eight Charges of Powder). I mention this for the above incident occurred in the 1980s the Rounds come with 7 charges, not the pre-1965 Six Charge or the Eight charges of today).

I bring up the above, for all armies have similar regulations when it comes to mortar and artillery fire. Do to the training that includes extensive paperwork, the gunners and other members of the gun crew get use to doing the paperwork, it becomes automatic. Double checks are done all the time. Thus it is almost impossible for a mistake to occur, even in combat WITHOUT someone being punished for the mistake. That is what Turkey should be demanding from Syria AND Syria should be turning over to Turkey the gunners who fired these rounds (Or court martial the gunners themselves). Something has to occur, which can be Syria providing the data why this was a mistake OR that someone else did it. The burden is on Syria for it has the Ground Radar to know where the rounds were fired from AND who was operating in that area. Turkey has knowledge of where the rounds were fired from (Similar Ground Radar Capability) but Turkey has no records of what units were operating in the area the Rounds were fired from.

The Deaths involved means someone has to be punished and right now that Syria's duty to provide what evidence it has on why those five people died.