14 24 year old locking Yanis on Scots to Diamond a Flintridge prep alam was 40 minutes from getting picked up to come home from his deployment in southern Afghanistan when he was killed by friendly fire 40 minutes before leaving he and four other soldiers died when a US warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on them in what's been called the deadliest friendly fire accident in the war's 18 years our son could have done anything he wanted to do he was a National Merit Scholar he played football out
at Pomona College he left College because he felt his truest calling was to be a green beret and protect our country the Pentagon determined the deaths were avoidable in part a report concluded because of mistakes on the ground but also students family and his captain say because the b-1 bomber backing up the soldiers as they came under fire could not see the team's infrared strobes attached to their helmets and so they were mistaken as the enemy b-1 bomber circled three different times and cou
ld not see the infrared strobes yes mistakes were made but the only one that mattered at the end of the day was that the b1 could not see those strokes in Green Berets in any kind of ground warriors who wear infrared strobes are trained to believe that the b1 can students family has spent the last five years trying to fix that they say they found several companies including one here in California that could adjust the B ones targeting system so it can see the infrared strobes and help crews know
who they're aiming at he said we can't we help people who can't help themselves certainly if we have men and women like Scott doing that for their country don't we owe it to them to protect them on that field of battle and this summer they are working furiously with the House and Senate Armed Forces committees to get legislation written to fix the problem we are live in Pasadena tonight I'm Laurie Perez back to you wonderful store
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