Posted on 06/24/2004 11:50:12 AM PDT by NorthOf45
US air force dismisses charges against pilot accused in bombing of Canadians
Canadian Press Thursday, June 24, 2004
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - All charges will be dismissed against a U.S. fighter pilot who accidentally bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002, killing four, the air force announced Thursday.
Maj. Harry Schmidt has accepted an air force offer to face administrative punishment in exchange for dismissal of four counts of dereliction of duty, according to a statement from the air force.
Schmidt had previously declined the same offer.
Good.
What does this mean? Administrative punishment, is that a court martial? In any case, the man's career is over, isn't it?
The ground controller and forward observers, if memory serves correctly, should be forced to stand the same administrative punishment.
Good? The man's carelessness killed four people.
Thank g-d.
Who's right? Who's wrong? Unfortuneately I don't believe we'll ever know. There was more than one variable here. As it stands though, I do believe his flying career is over.
Well, that only took two years. What a nightmare.
How did you arrive at that conclusion, have you heard any evidence in the case?
Which person are you talking about? The one that scheduled a flight path near troops training? The one that neglected to
inform the aircrews of the night training? The one that gave the authorization to drop? Who?
I could be wrong here but since the charges were dismissed then the "administrative punishment" could be any number of things but he will be allowed to stay in the service.
"Friendly fire" happens in war.
I know in Nam on more than one occasion because of the poor maps we had, we actually called artillery and sometimes air strikes on our own position. LOL(wasn't so damn funny at the time)
Semper Fi,
Kelly
There are no winners here...
Live fire exercise in a combat zone???
True.
Waay, waay off topic...but, does anyone know what happened with the American soldier who threw grenades into the tents of his sleeping comrades?
I thought that he personally disobeyed the “authorization to NOT drop” at the time of engagement. Do you have a source for that?
No it isn't a court martial. Yes his career is over. He apparently wanted to stand trial. Shame the charges were dismissed. Both for his sake and for the families of the dead Canadian troops.
It wasn't his carelessness, it was the carelessness of those who scheduled his flight path. Unfortunately, "friendly fire" happens in war. It's happened in every war since artillary small and large has been used.
I had heard that as well, that he ignored orders or was not authorized to drop. It's been a while, maybe what we heard was wrong.
Good. He's been through enough hell.
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