Robert Dornan: “the subject of friendly fire; the subject of hurting, wounding, and killing our own allies, our own men. Mr. Speaker, we…”

“the subject of friendly fire; the subject of hurting, wounding, and killing our own allies, our own men. Mr. Speaker, we had far too many incidents of friendly fire death in Desert Storm. As a matter of fact, it was such a high percentage--25 percent--it was shocking. Of the 146 killed in action, 35 were friendly fire. That means 111 were killed by combat operations, and 35 by mistake. Now, the reason I took this time tonight is because of a ghastly tragedy that has taken place in the northern no-fly zone of Iraq, where American F-15's the world's greatest fighter, I believe a flight of two, shot down two United States UH-60 Blackhawks, the world's best and largest utility helicopter. This aircraft serves in many, many roles ranging from the Coast Guard and Navy in what they call guard duty, to pick up pilots out of the water. Along with Kanan Sea-Sprite, the Seahawk is still being purchased by the Navy. It is also used, as the MH-60, by our Special Operations forces. It is just an absolutely superb Sikorski helicopter.”