Posted on 01/03/2003 7:59:47 PM PST by RCW2001
January 4 2003
Two US pilots charged with manslaughter over a deadly "friendly fire" bombing that claimed the lives of four allied soldiers in Afghanistan were pressured to take amphetamines that may have impaired their judgement, their lawyers claim.
They said the air force made pilots use the Dexedrine "go pills" because of their erratic schedule - flying day and night - but did not tell them of the manufacturer's warning against operating heavy machinery or engaging in hazardous activities.
The F-16 pilots, Major Harry Schmidt and Major William Umbach, face court-martial for dropping a laser-guided bomb near Kandahar on April 17 because they thought they were being fired on from the ground. The explosion killed four Canadian soldiers.
The Air Force confirmed that pilots had used low doses of dextroamphetamine on long missions since World War II, but insisted its use was voluntary and safe.
But Charles Gittins, a former marine pilot and lawyer who is representing Major Schmidt, said his client flew seven 10-hour missions during several weeks in the region - and had used the pills each time because he got too tired without them.
"My client had to take them every mission to complete the mission," he said. "They over-tasked the pilots in the theatre. The one time he tried not to use the pill, he nearly had a collision with a tanker."
The warning from the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, had not been included in a voluntary consent form given to pilots. "The manufacturer specifically counsels doctors to tell patients they should not operate heavy machinery or engage in potentially hazardous activities while using this drug. No pilot was ever told that."
An air force investigation determined the pilots "demonstrated poor airmanship" and ignored procedure by not making sure there were no allied troops in the area when they dropped the bomb.
Their lawyers will argue at a hearing in Louisiana on January 13 that the accident could have been averted if the pilots had been told about ground exercises involving the Canadians.
Major Schmidt, 37, and Major Umbach, 43, now serve in the Illinois Air National Guard, where they were recalled to active duty in the "war on terrorism".
The chief of air force media, Colonel Alvina Mitchell, said the drug had long been used to combat fatigue during missions of eight to 12 hours, or if pilots were flying during normal sleeping hours.
Pilots typically took a 10-milligram dose of Dexedrine, half the amount given to children with attention deficit disorder. As well, the air force had never received any report of the drug contributing to an accident.
Especially if your brain is frying on speed.
The failure here was the USAF pushing pills or pushing these pilots beyond normal endurance and denying them adequate crew rest. Their superiors should be court-martialed and jailed.
Too bad this isn't a civilian court, or these pilots would be retiring as millionaires instead of trying to avoid being stabbed in the back by the same outfit who lets them 'volunteer' to take the go pills or keep flying till they crash from sleep deprevation.
The Air Force might wind up wishing the had not tried to stick it to these guys who, from what I've heard, were not guilty of negligence in any reasonable sense.
stay tuned...this one isn't finished yet!
Can you remember it?
Anyone who's done Dexedrine knows that it's effects are not the same as simply drinking a bunch of coffee.
Especially over the long term.
I don't believe the claimed 10 mg recommended average dosage would be stuck to religiously in these situations either. You can be sure the pilots are given a certain amount of discretion when it comes to dosage.
I've used Dexedrine and many other forms of amphetimines in the past and know how kooked out and wired out they can make people. You can even begin to hallucinate.
There is quite a bit more to this sad story than most sources are reporting. They did wrong and good guys died, and I am not unpatriotic, anti-military, or anti-Illinois Air Guard to say that.
Do you not think they would have been tried if they had killed American 101st ABN troops, or Royal Marines, or Australian SAS? Were the Apache crews who took out friendly Bradleys in 1991 not brought to trial?
The Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry was attached to TF RAKKASAN, 101st ABN DIV at the time. Those four dead troopers could just as easily have been Americans.
Read the report in Post #11.
The pre-flight briefing specifically stated "No fratricide...100% release clearance". Such instructions were issued precisely because the area around Kandahar was crawling with friendlies.
The pilots asked for permission to release while they were flying over a U.S. Army training range conducting a scheduled training exercise that maintained a liason officer at the Kandahar control tower in constant radio communication between the control tower and the training range.
The pilots were denied permission to release.
They circled back over the U.S. Army training range and, in violation of a direct order from the control tower, relesed their ordnance and killed friendly troops training at that U.S. Army training range.
Their lawyers can't win on the facts of the case so now they are dealing the "they were on mind-altering drugs" card.
I believe they need to justify their actions at Courts Martial. I don't prejudge them guilty or innocent but I believe they both have earned the right to be tried by a jury of their peers.
BTW, this was SOP during Vietnam, at least in the Marines.
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