Navy Lieutenant Sean McDougal was serving as a United States liaison officer as part of the British version of the Joint Operations Center at CENTCOM in Qatar on March 23, 2003. McDougal was watching the overhead 52-inch television screen when he and numerous Britons in the room saw a news report of an American service member who killed his commanding officer with a grenade. The incident took place at Camp Pennsylvania that was set up in Kuwait in a triangle formation with Camps New York and New Jersey.
Colonel Snider, the guy in charge of British forces, turned to me and said, “Sean, where is the camp’s location?” Colonel Snider sat at the corner of the room with his back to the wall so that no one could read his computer screen.
“I had the authority and training to know what I could and could not declassify to a foreign military such as Britain. I disclosed what I could.”
Five minutes later, a British air operations officer announced that a Tornado, a British jet, was missing. It was flying from Camp New York to Camp New Jersey.
McDougal put the pieces together. He had just viewed classified information that indicated the firing of a patriot missile from Camp New Jersey toward Camp New York, the opposite direction of the Tornado.
“I wrote a buddy of mine and asked, ‘Can the patriot shoot down an airplane?’” McDougal relayed that the answer was “yes.”
“I’ll never forget calling over the British colonel. ‘I hate saying this, but I think we shot down your plane,’” McDougal recounted.
“That was heinous. That was the worst day of the war for me,” McDougal said, “but, looking back, I’ve concluded that God gave me wisdom to put together what seemed to be two totally unrelated acts and figure out the truth about their missing plane. I was scared to death that I would say something wrong or embarrass our nation but I knew our ally had to know.”
The information was soon confirmed and relayed in the official briefing later that day. Further investigation revealed mistakes on both sides.
“Although I can’t prove it I know God was grooming me for other situations where I would have to give bad information to large groups and then stand fast.”
God, you are might in power and wisdom. You give courage in the most trying times, when we need it most.
“Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his.” (Daniel 2:20)