Army Report: Guardsman
Was Killed by ‘Friendly Fire’

Fifteen months after Master Sgt. Tom Stone of Tunbridge was shot and killed in a fierce fire fight in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has formally released a report confirming that he was killed by two machine gun bullets fired from a compound manned by U.S. Special Forces soldiers.

According to the report, the U.S. soldiers fighting next to Stone on March 29, 2006, were immediately aware that the shots that killed him, and wounded several allied soldiers close to Stone, came from behind.

Stone, 52, was not the only death due to so-called "friendly fire" that night. Moments before he was killed, the same Special Forces "security element in the northeast corner" fired on a group of Canadian soldiers stationed behind a berm at one corner of the compound. Canadian Forces Pvt. Robert Costall was also struck and killed.

At the time, the allied forces were attempting to repel a major, 2 a.m. attack on the remote base in the southern Afganistan desert.

The U.S. Central Command in Florida released its report on the investigation into the incident, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press. Except for Stone and Costall, all other names in the report were redacted.

The Army said the report was not completed until April; Stone’s family, including his wife Rose Loving of Tunbridge, was briefed in early May.

A highly trained and decorated medic serving in the National Guard, Stone was on his third volunteer mission in Afghanistan and serving as an embedded tactical trainer at the time of his death.

Afghan National Army soldiers, their U.S. military trainers, and a Canadian "quick reaction force" had mobilized that night to repel an attack by Taliban forces. Rocket-propelled grenades, heavy weapons, and mortar and small arms fire were all used in the firefight.

One witness, an Army sergeant, told investigators he realized at one point that a Special Forces gunner was shooting at the Canadian position. The gunner was ordered to stop, but then the soldier "turned his weapon 100 to 140 degrees from its original position and began firing in the direction" of the American forces.

According to the Army report released this week, Stone was crouching behind a wall on top of a building, when he was shot.

AP’s report on the incident noted that investigators found a string of bullet holes from the gunner’s location to the wall that Stone and other were using as cover.

The report does not indicate if anyone was disciplined.