Four Friendly Fire Reports
I did a blog past month fishing around for what else has been done on Friendly Fire: A Friendly Fire Discussion – The Dupuy Institute.
As a result of that post asking about where else had been done, Paul Syms (UK), a former Dstl analyst, sent me the following five files. With his permission they are posted here:
First is Chuck Hawkins’ 1991 paper on the issue: “Friendly Fire Casualties: A Vietnam War Perspective”. This effort I was aware of.
Next is Gene Visco’s 1995 presentation at ISMOR in the UK: “Friendly Fire Data and Analysis.” This effort I was also familiar with. I had a copy of different briefing from him. At one point was in my lower right hand desk drawer. I probably have a copy of that briefing somewhere in my files.
Visco 1995 Friendly fire 12 ISMOR
Chuck Hawkins and Gene Visco really pushed to get a proper analysis of the subject. I was aware of their efforts. They were unable to get a proper study funded by the U.S. DOD. Chuck Hawkins was the former VP of DMSI (Trevor Dupuy’s company before TDI). Gene Visco was with DUSA (OR) until it was shut down.
Next were two British efforts I was not familiar with, one from 2006 and one a study dated 2008 done by Paul Syms:
Gadsden & Outteridge 2006 Friendly fire HA 23 ISMOR V1.0
Syms 2008 25 ISMOR FF HA slides V1.0
Syms 2008 25 ISMOR FF HA paper V1.0
This last one is presented as both slides (34 slides) and an 8-page paper. It is pretty extensive. The slides are definitely worth flipping through.
I particularly like slides 28-29: Database size, and also the next two slides. In parallels some of the points I made in my one Phalanx article: Phalanx Article: What We Have Learned from Doing Historical Analysis – The Dupuy Institute
