SD Sailor Killed By Drone 'Friendly Fire'

The death of San Diego sailor Benjamin D. Rast in Afghanistan last week may have been caused by “friendly fire” from an unmanned aerial drone.

The Associated Press is reporting that Rast, a hospital corpsman, and a Marine reservist were killed when they were mistaken for insurgents Apr. 6 in southern Afghanistan.

A Predator drone fired the Hellfiremissile that killed the 23-year-old sailor and the 26-year-old Marine, in what may be the first case of American troop deaths from an unmanned aerial vehicle.

The Associated Press said the two men were hit while moving toward other Marines who were under fire in Helmand province.

Reports from the field indicate that Marines who were under attack there mistook Smith and Rast for militants heading their way and called in a strike from an Air Force Predator, the news service said.

The Pentagon has said only that the incident is under investigation. The International Security Assistance Force, the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, issued a statement saying that the Apr. 6 deaths were a result of friendly fire but gave no other details.

The U.S. military has used aerial drones extensively in Iraq and, now, in Afghanistan because the vehicles can stay in the air longer and operate at lower cost than manned crafts.

Rast was part of San Diego Naval Medical Center’s Expeditionary Medical Force Detachment.

After joining the Navy in April, 2009, he left San Diego in November to be a field "doc" for Marines fighting in Afghanistan.

"He was a remarkable sailor who was respected by his peers and co-workers for his integrity and strong work ethic," said Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Pietro Martone, in a Navy news release. "He was frequently complimented by his patients for his outstanding customer service skills."

Rast is survived by his father and stepfather. The Navy hospital in San Diego is planning a memorial service for later this month.

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'Friendly fire'...another example of the Orwellian state we live in. Pat Tillman anyone? Someone pushed a button, made a decision. Will they be held accountable or get a slap on the wrist like the Afghan kill team that murdered innocent children and posed with their corpses as trophies? Bad press for a Nobel Prize winner, unconstitutionally starting another war at the mandate of his UN masters.

Look at that picture. Could be from WWII, but it was last week. Sure, he's a hero. He didn't know that 9/11 was a staged event, perpetrated by rogue elements of our government usurped by the New World Order. And if people knew of the treason, there would be no war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya. We'd still have some rights, maybe our country wouldn't be going in the sh!tter so fast and this poor guy wouldn't have had a bomb dropped on his head by some coward with a PlayStation controller.