The video footage lasts just a few seconds, and the images aren't very clear.

"It's from a mile up and the fire was like this," Albert Graham says, as he makes a circle about the size of a nickel with his thumb and forefinger. "You see the fire, and you see the burst of the gunshots."

The footage he's describing was taken Sept. 4, 2006, from a camera mounted in the cockpit of a U.S. A-10A fighter plane.

As he watched the short, grainy video, Graham already knew the outcome of the chilling footage. Heck, it's been on his mind day and night for the past 10 months.

His son, Mark, was standing next to that fire, and one of those gunshots killed him.

"Seeing the actual incident, seeing it actually happen, it was very emotional," said Graham. "This is not a movie, it's really happening.

"That was very hard to take."

The video, along with some satellite photographs, were part of a presentation made to Graham and his wife, Linda, 11 days ago by Canada's Department of National Defence, a day before the government released details of an investigation into the friendly fire incident that killed Mark Graham and wounded 35 Canadian soldiers west of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

"They asked us if we wanted to see it and we said yes," Linda Graham said, although she admitted it was a difficult decision.

Mark Graham, a 33-year-old former Olympic track star from Hamilton's west Mountain, was killed at daybreak last Labour Day when the American pilot of the A-10A mistook a garbage fire at the Canadian encampment for an enemy position.

In their first public comments since the government's report was released, the Grahams say they bear no anger or animosity toward the pilot who made the fateful mistake that nearly wiped out a Canadian Forces company of soldiers.

"I really don't have any animosity against the pilot," said Albert Graham. "He was doing a job, he made a terrible mistake and as far as I understand, he's not doing very well because he's very distraught about it."

The Grahams don't know the identity of the pilot and haven't spoken to him, but they said the U.S. military did pass along his condolences to them.

Ten months after the tragic incident, the 118-page report answers some of the Grahams's questions about what happened to their son that morning in Afghanistan but it's done little to relieve their lingering sadness and anger.

"Basically, there was nothing I was told that makes me feel better," said Albert Graham, a soft-spoken man who measures his words carefully before he speaks.

"The miracle I would want is to have him back here and that, I know, will not happen.

"Now that I've seen the report and talked about it, I don't think it's really changed anything," he added. "He's dead. Whatever they've told me will not bring peace to the way I feel."

The report concludes that pilot error was the cause of the tragedy and that the incident was preventable.

Daylight was just beginning to break and there was a significant contrast between the brightening sky and the shadows down below on the ground.

The pilot had just removed his night vision goggles and instead of relying on his instrumentation, he looked out the cockpit window and honed in on the wrong target.

"I'm kind of glad we have the information because it answers the questions but I still feel profoundly sad," said Linda Graham.

"And angry," added Albert Graham. "Well, I am. I'm not going to go out there and wave my fist and yell and scream.

"But it's not just because of Mark," he said. "When I see all those young fellows coming home wrapped in the flag in a box, it's sadness and anger.

"These young men, they all could be my son. It makes me really sad and angry when I see these young men die."

But he's uncomfortable getting drawn into political discussions about Canada's role in the Afghanistan war.

"I don't like any kind of war," Graham said.

The past 10 months have left him conflicted, however, especially since he has another son, Daniel, who is stationed in Edmonton with a Canadian Forces tank battalion.

"At first, I thought these guys should come back, let's go, come home," said Graham. "Then you talk to some of the soldiers that are back from Afghanistan and one of my questions is always 'Would you go back?'

"Nine out of 10 times I ask that question, they say yes," he added. "Why? Because they see what they're accomplishing there.

"So I have to think about it."

The Grahams also announced that they have created an annual scholarship in memory of their son, who was a track star at Sir Allan MacNab secondary school on the west Mountain.

The $500 bursary will be awarded each September for at least the next five years to a Hamilton student from any high school entering college or university who combines academic and athletic skill.

"One of the reasons was that we need something positive that month, something positive in September," said Albert Graham.

"We also wanted to thank the community," added Linda Graham. "In fact, the community has been very supportive.

"When it's happening, you don't really notice but when you think back you go, wow, that's pretty amazing that we heard from so many people, and so many people thought about us enough to send a card or a letter."

The first recipient of the bursary will be announced Sept. 22 at the annual dinner for the Jamaica Foundation of Hamilton.

sbuist@thespec.com

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