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.

FMI: www.af.mil