Posted on 06/25/2004 4:16:33 AM PDT by Max Combined
NEW ORLEANS -- The Air Force has decided not to court-martial a U.S. fighter pilot who mistakenly dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb that killed four Canadians in Afghanistan in 2002.
Maj. Harry Schmidt, 37, will face nonjudicial punishment, the Air Force said Thursday. Four dereliction-of-duty charges against him will be dismissed in court.
He could face punishment including 30 days confinement or loss of one month's pay, about $5,600, Air Force spokeswoman Col. Alvina Mitchell said.
Schmidt originally was charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault and faced up to 64 years in prison. Military officials recommended against a court-martial on those charges last June, saying Schmidt could face nonjudicial punishment.
Schmidt turned down the offer, saying he wanted to clear his name in a court-martial instead. He was ordered to be tried on the lesser charge of dereliction of duty.
But the agreement announced Thursday meant the dereliction charges will be pursued in a lesser, nonjudicial forum, beginning July 1.
Schmidt's lawyer, Charles Gittins, said the Air Force has agreed to allow him to remain employed with the Illinois Air National Guard, but not as a pilot.
Gittins said his client did not want to fly for the Air Force anymore because he believes he has been "second-guessed in a combat situation by people sitting back in the air-conditioned comfort of the Pentagon."
Schmidt was charged for dropping the bomb from his fighter jet on April 17, 2002, near Kandahar, killing four and wounding eight Canadian soldiers who were conducting live-fire exercises. Schmidt later said he released the bomb because he mistook the Canadians' gunfire for an attack from Taliban soldiers.
The victims were the first Canadians to die in combat since the Korean War.
The case against Schmidt and his mission commander, Maj. William Umbach, has been closely watched in Canada, where many were outraged by the bombing and the two days it took President Bush to publicly apologize. Manslaughter and aggravated assault charges against Umbach were dismissed and he was allowed to retire, as he had requested.
The pilot must be beside himself to know he hit comrades in arms instead of the fiends they went there to fight.
Question : would the US Army demand sanctions against a Canadian pilot who would make the same mistake on US soldiers ? I mean, is there some way a Canadian pilot could be tried before a US court of justice for this kind of deed ?
I didn't realize that pilots made that much. I need to join the USAF. . .
Who knows? The answer is that "It depends."
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