Friendly fire cited in soldier's death
MONTPELIER -- A Vermont National Guard soldier killed in Afghanistan last year was hit by machine gun rounds fired from a compound manned by US Special Forces soldiers, according to an Army report released to the Associated Press yesterday.
Sergeant First Class John Thomas Stone was shot once in the back and once in the head while crouching behind a wall atop a building where he and other US and allied soldiers were repelling a major, nighttime attack.
The friendly fire also killed Private Robert Costall of the Canadian Forces and wounded a number of American and allied soldiers, said the report, a collection of witness statements assembled by American investigators. One statement indicated that the gunner shot at two allied positions in quick succession early on March 29, 2006.
Investigators found a string of bullet holes from the gunner's location to the wall that Stone and others were using as cover from enemy fire from outside the base.
After his death, Stone, 52, of Tunbridge was promoted to master sergeant. A medic, he had joined the Army in 1971. He was in and out of the military over the years before joining the Guard. He was on his third tour in Afghanistan when he was killed. 