Sun, Oct 19, 2003
They May Be Used In Defense Of Illinois ANG Pilot
Friendly fire -- when
one combatant accidentally fires on his own comrade-in-arms -- has
been tagged as the single worst problem to emerge from the second
Gulf War. Now, an Illinois Air National Guard pilot hopes
documentation on other such incidents will help clear him of
charges stemming from a tragic episode in Afghanistan early last
year.
Major Harry Schmidt and his wingman were patrolling the skies
near Kandahar in April, 2002, when they spotted what they thought
was enemy groundfire (ANN: "Pilots' Mistake Responsible For Canadian
Deaths" -- 20 June 2002). Four Canadian soldiers were
killed, eight wounded when Schmidt dropped a 500-pound bomb on the
troops who were conducting a live-fire exercise. Schmidt is charged
with dereliction of duty. His court-martial will take place
sometime after a 26 January 2004 preliminary hearing at Barksdale
AFB (LA).
Schmidt's lawyer, Charles W. Gittins, says communications
problems and poor command decision were to blame for the deadly
incident. In a motions hearing that ended Saturday, USAF judge,
Col. Mary Boone considered eight pretrial motions, including
whether the government should be forced to release to the public
more than 1,000 pages of documents related to the case. In that
hearing the Air Force agreed to turn over documents on 17 friendly
fire accidents to the F-16 driver and his attorney.
But Gittens isn't satisfied. He wants the judge to order the
government to produce an email from the wife of one US air
commander serving in Afghanistan at the time. It's not exactly
clear what's in the email, but Gittens says it shows Air Force bias
against Schmidt. Gittens seems to think the email to Fox wasn't
sent by the commander's wife, but by the commander himself.
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