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Payments to Afghans detailed at MarSOC inquiry

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — More than 50 Afghans received compensation payments as a result of the suicide vehicle attack on a Marine Special Operations platoon and the shootout that followed, during two ceremonies following the March 4, 2007 incident.

Air Force Lt. Col. Gordon Phillips, Provincial Reconstruction Team 7 commander responsible for Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan, testified from there via video Tuesday that solatia payments are an offer of condolences, not an admission of guilt.

“When you have an event like this, you want to try to rebuild the relationships as quickly as possible,” he said.

The payments were made to Afghans who said they were injured, had a family member killed, or personal property damaged the morning the platoon from Fox Company, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, was attacked. PRT-7 arrived in the province in late March, after the incident, and were responsible for reconstruction and building relationships with area leaders.

Phillips said that Afghanis in the region were “very irate and very disturbed about the incident” when his team arrived.

“When I came on the ground, there was a lot of hostility and animosity about this event,” he said. “It was the hot topic.”

At a May 8 ceremony held for Afghans who received condolence payments, 10 were paid for a family member’s death and 15 paid for injuries they sustained. During a May 24 ceremony, which was more widely publicized than the first, seven Afghans received payment for deaths and 10 for injuries.

Seventeen more received payments for property damages, according to witness testimony. The testimony has not revealed figures for how much money was paid out.

Several Marines have testified in a court of inquiry looking into the incident that they came under a small-arms attack after the blast. But the only Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent to testify so far said there was no physical evidence to support a complex ambush.

Maj. Fred Galvin, 38, Fox’s company commander at the time, and Capt. Vincent Noble, 29, the platoon commander, are the main focus of the inquiry.

The pair, along with six others in the company, were sent back to Camp Lejeune shortly after the entire 120-man company was pulled from Afghanistan following the attack and subsequent alleged firefight, which some reports claim ended with the death of 19 Afghan civilians.

Galvin and Noble have not been charged with any crimes, but the court will consider whether they should be charged with conspiracy to make a false official statement, false official statement, failure to obey a lawful order and dereliction of duty.

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