One day in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Corps Corporal James Gilligan saw a flash on a mountain side about five or six kilometers from his squad’s position. So he radioed it in. When asked for the coordinates of the flash, Corporal Gilligan took out his magnetic compass, failing to take into account he was sitting next to a metal machine gun. The Marine mortars zeroed in on the location Corporal Gilligan gave. Gilligan was asked if he could see where the mortar shells were hitting. He said he could not. But it was too late to stop them. James Gilligan learned later the relentless mortar barrage he had called in, devastated, not a Taliban stronghold, but a village, killing or mutilating men, women and children.