Investigation Released on April's 'Friendly Fire' Accident

By ANN Contributor Pete Combs

A joint US-Canadian investigation has found that an American F-16 pilot didn't follow proper procedures when he mistakenly dropped a 500-pound laser-guided bomb on a group of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.
 
The April 18th incident was among the deadliest "friendly fire" episodes of the war on terror in Afghanistan. Four Canadian soldiers were killed. Eight were wounded. The 1500-page investigative report found that Illinois Air National Guard Major Harry Schmidt didn't take time to figure out the situation around him before he launched his weapon. Fellow pilot, Maj. William Umbach, also faces an Article 32 hearing.
 
"An Article 32 investigation is the military equivalent of a grand jury," said Eugene Fidell, President of the National Institute of Military Justice in Washington. "It's a preliminary investigation that has to be conducted, unless the accused waives it."
 
It was described as a "tragic accident;" it was the first time Canadian troops were killed in action since the Korean War. Schmidt, a former Navy officer flying for the 183rd Fighter Wing of the Illinois Air National Guard, was flying over southern Afghanistan on the night of April 18th, when he radioed controllers, saying he thought he was coming under attack from the ground. The Pentagon report says Schmidt, whose unfortunate call-sign was "Psycho," asked for permission to attack the source of that ground fire. Permission was denied.

What Schmidt apparently didn't know at the time was the muzzle flashes he saw below came from Canadian soldiers' weapons. They were conducting target practice in an area that the Pentagon says was well-defined to both pilots and ground troops alike. While Schmidt and Umbach were denied permission to launch on the targets, they were told to go back and mark the area for further study. One of the pilots told investigators that, as they were carrying out that instruction from controllers, he thought he saw the other pilot coming under attack from the ground. That's when he dropped the laser-guided munition.
 
"He did not know that the troops on the ground were coalition soldiers," said Schmidt's lawyer, Capt. James Key, in a statement released without revealing Schmidt's name. Key said his client is terribly sorry for what happened and is fully cooperating with both the joint US-Canadian and independent Canadian investigations.
 
A Pentagon official said Schmidt will probably face criminal charges in a court-martial later this year. But, at the Institute for Military Justice, Eugene Fidell isn't so sure.

"There's going to be some mishaps which can be terribly devastating and tragic," he said. "They may hurt our people, they may hurt coalition forces, they may hurt the other side's civilians. It's an inherently dangerous activity and, unfortunately, any time you have military operations going on, there's a substantial danger somebody is going to get hurt whether intentionally or otherwise. It's relatively infrequent that you have a court martial roll out of these (incidents)." But, Fidell admitted, courts martial in friendly fire cases do happen.
 
The friendly fire episode sparked outrage among many Canadians. At least one member of parliament blamed President Bush for not formally apologizing. Mr. Bush did express his "heartfelt sympathy" to the family and friends of the Canadian soldiers killed and wounded. 

[Pete Combs is the Managing Editor of "America United: The War On Terror," carried on USA Radio Network News.]

FMI: www.defenselink.mil, http://www.ilspi.ang.af.mil/