An inexperienced Australian combat commander overruled his equally inexperienced platoon leader and ordered troops out on a ''fighting patrol'' in which a digger was killed, an Army inquiry has found.
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The inquiry, headed by Colonel Brian Cox CSC, found the way in which the patrol was deployed had contributed to Private Nathan Bewes' death in an IED blast less than 1000m from Combat Outpost Mashal on July 9 last year.
Colonel Cox also found one of the diggers had not received the necessary training and was not qualified to take part.
His report, issued yesterday, says two key command positions had been filled by ''junior members'' with ''limited command experience''.
They were the officer commanding Mentoring Team-Charlie and the platoon commander at Combat Outpost Mashal in the North Baluchi Valley in Afghanistan's Uruzgan Province.
Both men were filling in for officers on leave and were ''operating in an isolated environment without additional control measures in place'', Colonel Cox found.
Colonel Cox said their inexperience had not been a factor in Private Bewes' death and the patrol had been properly planned and led.
He has, however, recommended all temporary replacements for key command positions be ''carefully vetted'' and that comprehensive ''handover-takeovers'' be conducted when commanders take leave.
Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, who issued the report, said this recommendation had been accepted.
He said although the commanding officer and the platoon leader had both been acting in their positions they were ''not inexperienced in the way junior may suggest''.
The acting platoon commander was not the only digger who questioned the mission.
Speaking to investigators after the event, patrol members criticised the acting commander of Mentoring Team-Charlie for sending an Australian-only force and for insisting the patrol go ahead despite the concerns raised.
The fighting patrol had been ordered after a fierce encounter between an Afghan National Army patrol and insurgents earlier that day.
''The Acting Officer Commanding insisted that the patrol investigate the area of interest,'' Colonel Cox said.
While the risk from IEDs was known, this was outweighed by ''the imminent threat of insurgent contact''.
The diggers were returning to their combat outpost with a prisoner at 6.20pm local time when the fatality occurred.
The 6 RAR website says the IED had been remotely detonated.
A heavily redacted section of the report states MTF-1 had received limited training in the use of some new equipment because of the urgent need to get it into the field.
It has taken Defence almost 16 months to prepare and issue the report.
