rossmum
October 20th, 2009, 09:59 PM
Just what I need to hear after finally dragging myself out of bed. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/21/2719556.htm)
Army Chief Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie has hailed the commando who was shot dead during a training exercise in South Australia last night as a "great Australian".
Lance Corporal Mason Edwards of the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment was shot in the head during a live-firing exercise at the Cultana Military Base at about 9:30pm yesterday.
The 30-year-old was training for his upcoming third deployment to Afghanistan when the accident happened.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and the body was taken in an army vehicle to the Port Augusta hospital under tight security just after midnight.
Another soldier, also based in Sydney, was taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds to his arm but is expected to rejoin his unit, the Incident Response Regiment, later today.
Both men were members of the Army's Special Operations Command.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Canberra this morning, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie said the soldiers were engaged in close-quarters combat training with live ammunition when the accident happened.
"I know for a fact that Mason was a committed and determined soldier," he said.
"And I can tell you that he considered himself lucky to live in this great country, and to have the love and support of his family and partner."
He said Lance Corporal Edwards' fellow soldiers did everything they could to "save their mate".
The Army Chief confirmed there would be a South Australia police investigation as well as a military review of what happened.
"Something went wrong and the aim of the South Australian Police investigation and the Australian Defence Force investigation will be to tell me what went wrong and what I need to do to fix it," he added.
He said it was "clearly a very tragic accident", but added that such exercises also saved lives during operations in the field.
"It involves compound clearance, house clearance ... and they're the most dangerous tasks they can have in those sorts of situations," he said.
"There is the potential, if they're not prepared, that they can do harm to themselves."
Earlier Defence Force Chief Angus Houston offered his "deepest sympathy" to the family of the dead soldier.
Probably means little or nothing to most of you, what with there only being a handful of Aussies here, but that really sucks. Not entirely sure how it happened, but I hope it won't be repeating itself.
Army Chief Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie has hailed the commando who was shot dead during a training exercise in South Australia last night as a "great Australian".
Lance Corporal Mason Edwards of the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment was shot in the head during a live-firing exercise at the Cultana Military Base at about 9:30pm yesterday.
The 30-year-old was training for his upcoming third deployment to Afghanistan when the accident happened.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and the body was taken in an army vehicle to the Port Augusta hospital under tight security just after midnight.
Another soldier, also based in Sydney, was taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds to his arm but is expected to rejoin his unit, the Incident Response Regiment, later today.
Both men were members of the Army's Special Operations Command.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Canberra this morning, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie said the soldiers were engaged in close-quarters combat training with live ammunition when the accident happened.
"I know for a fact that Mason was a committed and determined soldier," he said.
"And I can tell you that he considered himself lucky to live in this great country, and to have the love and support of his family and partner."
He said Lance Corporal Edwards' fellow soldiers did everything they could to "save their mate".
The Army Chief confirmed there would be a South Australia police investigation as well as a military review of what happened.
"Something went wrong and the aim of the South Australian Police investigation and the Australian Defence Force investigation will be to tell me what went wrong and what I need to do to fix it," he added.
He said it was "clearly a very tragic accident", but added that such exercises also saved lives during operations in the field.
"It involves compound clearance, house clearance ... and they're the most dangerous tasks they can have in those sorts of situations," he said.
"There is the potential, if they're not prepared, that they can do harm to themselves."
Earlier Defence Force Chief Angus Houston offered his "deepest sympathy" to the family of the dead soldier.
Probably means little or nothing to most of you, what with there only being a handful of Aussies here, but that really sucks. Not entirely sure how it happened, but I hope it won't be repeating itself.