Maj. Schmidt's reprimand

Jul. 7, 2004
Maj. Schmidt's reprimand
FROM CANADIAN PRESS

Following is the text of a letter of reprimand issued Tuesday by
Lt.-Gen. Bruce Carlson of the United States 8th Air Force to fighter
pilot Maj. Harry Schmidt, who dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian
soldiers and injured eight others in April 2002 in Afghanistan:

"You are hereby reprimanded. You flagrantly disregarded a direct order
from the controlling agency, exercised a total lack of basic flight
discipline over your aircraft, and blatantly ignored the applicable
rules of engagement and special instructions. Your wilful misconduct
directly caused the most egregious consequences imaginable, the deaths
of four coalition soldiers and injury to eight others. The victims of
your callous misbehaviour were from one of our staunch allies in
Operation Enduring Freedom and were your comrades-in-arms.

"You acted shamefully on 17 April 2002 over Tarnak Farms, Afghanistan,
exhibiting arrogance and a lack of flight discipline. When your flight
lead warned you to "make sure it's not friendlies" and the Airborne
Warning and Control System aircraft controller directed you to "stand
by" and later to "hold fire," you should have marked the location with
your targeting pod. Thereafter, if you believed, as you stated, you
and your leader were threatened, you should have taken a series of
evasive actions and remained at a safe distance to await further
instructions from AWACS. Instead, you closed on the target and
blatantly disobeyed the direction to "hold fire." Your failure to
follow that order is inexcusable. I do not believe you acted in
defence of Maj. Umbach or yourself. Your actions indicate that you
used your self-defence declaration as a pretext to strike a target,
which you rashly decided was an enemy firing position, and about which
you had exhausted your patience in waiting for clearance from the
Combined Air Operations Center to engage. You used the inherent right
of self-defence as an excuse to wage your own war.

"In your personal presentation before me on 1 July 2004, I was
astounded that you portrayed yourself as a victim of the disciplinary
process without expressing heartfelt remorse over the deaths and
injuries you caused to the members of the Canadian Forces. In fact,
you were obviously angry that the United States Air Force had dared to
question your actions during the 17 April 2002 tragedy. Far from
providing any defence for your actions, the written materials you
presented to me at the hearing only served to illustrate the degree to
which you lacked flight discipline as a wingman of COFFEE Flight on 17
April 2002.

"Through your arrogance, you undermined one of the most sophisticated
weapons systems in the world, consisting of the Combined Air
Operations Center, the Airborne Warning and Control System, and highly
disciplined pilots, all of whom must work together in an integrated
fashion to achieve combat goals. The United States Air Force is a
major contributor to military victories over our nation's enemies
because our pilots possess superior flight discipline. However, your
actions on the night of 17 April 2002 demonstrate an astonishing lack
of flight discipline. You were blessed with an aptitude for aviation,
your nation provided you the best aviation training on the planet, and
you acquired combat expertise in previous armed conflicts. However, by
your gross poor judgment, you ignored your training and your duty to
exercise flight discipline, and the result was tragic. I have no faith
in your abilities to perform in a combat environment.

"I am concerned about more than your poor airmanship; I am also
greatly concerned about your officership and judgment. Our Air Force
core values stress "integrity first." Following the engagement in
question, you lied about the reasons why you engaged the target after
you were directed to hold fire and then you sought to blame others.
You had the right to remain silent, but not the right to lie. In
short, the final casualty of the engagement over Kandahar on 17 April
2002 was your integrity."

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