Court Of Inquiry

posted by Jennifer Hlad on Jan 21

Capt. Robert Olson, who was the executive officer and intelligence officer of MSOC-F during the March 4 incident, testified this afternoon.

Olson has been granted immunity except for issues relating to a possible security breach, Col. Lecce told the panel. He is represented by a lawyer named Timothy Dunn, a reserve Marine.  

Olson went to Afghanistan early, with the advance party, to learn more about an area that had “very little U.S. presence and had had very little U.S. presence,” he said.

After meeting with Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan officials to learn how things worked in the country and explain MSOC-F’s capabilities, Olson said he got the feeling “we were a little bit of a nuisance.”

Though the CJSOTF officials were friendly, Olson said he “didn’t get a real clear answer on a lot of things that I considered fairly critical.”

When the rest of MSOC-F arrived, Olson gave separate intelligence briefs for the security platoon and the direct action special reconnassaince (DASR) platoon. Both briefs were extensive, he said, lasting more than 2 hours. In them, he focused on introducing the Marines to the battlespace and what they would be dealing with.

“The province varies greatly, probably more than anywhere else in the world,” he said, with a complex environment and a complex population.

For the March 4 mission, Olson said he would have sent a request for the mission to CJSOTF at least 24 hours ahead of time for information, but that the request did not need to be authorized because of the type of mission.

The mission, he testified, was for Maj. Galvin and Capt. Noble to do a site survey at Torkham gate, then, later to meet with leaders in the Bati Kot district. That district headquarters had seen a lot of threats, and had been attacked once, Olson said.

Olson was asleep March 4 when he got a call asking if there had been an ambush and gunfight. He got up and got dressed, then talked to the patrol when they returned, he said.

He was told the convoy was attacked by a suicide vehicle bomb with follow-on fire. Olson went into the Reconnaissance Operations Center, where he saw Capt. Noble. He later went to the debrief, which he said was roughly 15 to 20 minutes after the unit returned.

posted by Jennifer Hlad on Jan 10

Sgt. Joshua Henderson’s lawyer, Charles Gittins, said Henderson will not testify.

Henderson was the gunner in the second vehicle in the convoy, which was the main target of the vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Testimony has indicated Henderson did most of the shooting.

“He’s in the zone of people who could be prosecuted, because he’s a gunner,” Gittens said about why he told Henderson not to testify. “All they have to do is grant him immunity.”

Henderson engaged about four targets, as well as vehicles that refused to get out of the way after the blast, Gittins said. He shot the vehicles’ engine blocks, not the occupants, Gittins said.

Henderson also was injured in the attack, but still has not received his Purple Heart, Gittins said.

In a detailed statement given in March, Henderson described in detail the targets he fired at, what they were doing, and why he shot, Gittins said. The men were military-aged males — two who apeared to be using an SUV as cover and two who were in an open area, as well as one behind him.

Henderson identified muzzle flashes and the whiz and crack of rounds over his head and in the turret, he said in the statement. He had deployed twice previously to Iraq and been ambushed twice during those deployments.

Gittins was attending the court of inquiry as an observer. He said his client was inches away from death.

“But for the turret of that vehicle, my client would have been shot,” Gittins said.