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yeah that madison kid was attached to 9 assault squadron and was killed when the wheel house of the hovercraft was hit up pretty hard. 2 more marines were blown into the river but they were okay. I think that was then....could be wrong though, there was contacts with the enemy alright but it was friendly fire, well...not so friendly fire. And that AFCO dude was talking rubbish, there have been plenty of Marines killed since WW2. And another thing to think about, there's 114 British service men killed since the conflict in Iraq started....how many are maimed. I know that over 2,000 U.S service men have been killed since the war was declared over and 18,000 have been left limbless..........they're the poor buggers that no-one hears about. So don't be fooled, its a very dangerous game.

letsrole wrote:borisimo- I think that was the incident involving Marine Chris Madison, where they claimed it was enemy fire, but most of the evidence suggests that is was blue on blue.

He died as a result, there was a good documentary on it a while back.

Mulligan wrote:yeah that madison kid was attached to 9 assault squadron and was killed when the wheel house of the hovercraft was hit up pretty hard. 2 more marines were blown into the river but they were okay. I think that was then....could be wrong though, there was contacts with the enemy alright but it was friendly fire, well...not so friendly fire.

He was in 539 assault sqn on telic 1. The BBC2 documentary was a mini-series called "Fighting the War" and covered the initial invasion of Iraq from different view points (fighter pilot, soldier, navy personnel etc etc). The investigation uncovered that when Chris Madison's hovercraft was hit in the wheelhouse, 2 milan's had been fired by Brits further up river (towards the hovercraft). One missed the hovercraft and exploded on the riverbank behind. 2 other marines were in the wheelhouse at the time it was hit, both were injured but survived. A further 2 were around the wheelhouse and were blown clear of the boat and into the water. The coxswain of the hovercraft feared them dead and made the decision to attempt to steer the crippled craft to safety - which he did. After the engagement (both both thinking it was with the enemy), other hovercraft rushed to the scene to help - passing the crippled hovercraft on the way. They picked up both the marines who had been blown into the water - one had minor injuries.

Although all the evidence suggests it was blue on blue, the MoD aren't about to admit that.

"Fighting the War" was an excellent BBC production. As far as I was concerned it told the story as it was. It was repeaded very recently on some sky channel - which is why what happened is so fresh in my mind. It's always sad when you hear a British fatality, none more so when you hear it was blue on blue.