| Afghanistan Friendly Fire Incident |
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DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT Major Harry Schmidt and his wingman, Major William Umbach were returning from a 10-hour patrol, at 23,000 feet, when they spotted what they believed to be surface-to-air fire. The fire was from a Canadian Anti-tank and Machine-gun exercise. Apparently thinking Umbach was under attack, Schmidt requested permission from flight control ( AWACS ) to fire his 20 mm cannons. He received the response: "hold fire." Four seconds later, Schmidt said he was "rolling in, in self defense." He dropped a laser-guided bomb 35 seconds later. Shmidt then said "I hope I did the right thing." as the AWACS controller said "Friendlies, Khandahar." CASUALTIES The soldiers who died were:
The eight injured men include:
FINDINGS OF BOARD OF INQUIRY Two Boards of Inquiry, one Canadian and one American, were held simultaneously. The two boards shared personnel and information. Canadian Brigadier-General M.J. Dumais was specialist advisor to the Canadian board and co-chair of the American board. The findings of the four-member Canadian Tarnak Farm Board of Inquiry, chaired by General Maurice Baril, were released on June 28th, 2002. The Board found that the Canadian troops engaged in the night live-fire exercise had conducted their operations as authorized and in accordance with the established range procedures for the types of weapons fire. The Board concluded that the American F-16 pilots contravened established procedures and were the cause of the incident. DISPOSITION On September 11 , 2002 , the U.S. pilots, Majors Harry Schmidt and William Umbach were officially charged with 4 counts of Negligent Manslaughter , 8 counts of Aggravated Assault , and 1 count of Dereliction Of Duty . On July 6, 2004 U.S. Lt.-Gen. Bruce Carlson found Schmidt guilty of Dereliction Of Duty in what the U.S. military calls a "non-judicial hearing" before a senior officer. He was given thirty days of house arrest. Umbach was reprimanded for leadership failures and allowed to retire. This was the most serious case of Fratricide or friendly fire to have been experienced by the Canadian Forces (CF) in Coalition operations since the Korean War . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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