First Soldiers Down: Canada's Friendly Fire Deaths in Afghanistan

by Ron Corbett, Pat Stogran (Foreword)

On April 18, 2002, Alpha Company, Third Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was on a training exercise at Tarnak Farms, a former Taliban artillery range in southern Afghanistan. The exercise had been underway for nearly seven hours when two American fighter pilots flew overhead. One, Major Harry Schmidt, saw the artillery fire below, and thinking he was under attack, dropped a laser-guided bomb.

Four Canadian soldiers died that night, the first Canadian combat fatalities since the Korean War. For many in Canada the tragedy signalled the true beginning of Canada's lengthy combat mission in Afghanistan.

First Soldiers Down recounts what happened that evening through archival material and the recollections of troops. It also tells the personal stories of the fallen Sergeant Marc Lger, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, Private Richard Green, and Private Nathan Smith as well as what happened to the loved ones of each of the four in the decade since the incident.

Genres: History

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2012

About the author

Ron Corbett is the author of the Danny Barrett thrillers (published by Berkley) considered “ … a dynamite new series debut … ” by the (New York Times Book Review). Ron is also the Edgar® and Arthur Ellis® nominated author of the Frank Yakabuski mystery series. Set on the Northern Divide, the Yakabuski series has been called “Truly captivating” (Publishers Weekly) “Soulful” (Kirkus Reviews) and “A series with a long life ahead.” (Globe and Mail).

A former radio host and newspaper columnist, Ron’s first book of fiction was Ragged Lake, the debut novel in the Frank Yakabuski mystery series, and an Edgar Award nominee for Best Original Paperback.

The father of four, Ron is married to award-winning photo-journalist Julie Oliver and still lives in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada, where he writes the Yakabuski stories from the study of a century-old house, “not far from a good river.”