[RACooper]

Well it looks like my ol'friend Major Schmidt has given an interview about how he has suffered emotionally because of the firendly-fire incident.... and yet still has not apologized to the families of the men he killed

Disgraced pilot suicidal over friendly fire deaths
Maj. Harry Schmidt bares soul to magazine
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmon...a-88dd979cff43
The above link included because it's local (for the PPCLI - the unit involved) coverage, and because it's free to access.


U.S. pilot who dropped bomb on Canadian soldiers haunted by memories
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...y_fire_schmidt

(CP) - The U.S. fighter pilot who dropped the bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan says he is haunted by memories of the incident and the suffering of the victims' families, but he still can't say he's sorry.

Maj. Harry Schmidt, in his first major interview since the 2002 friendly fire incident, told a U.S. publication that not a day goes by that he doesn't think of the families of the dead Canadian soldiers. But Schmidt says he was a victim of circumstances beyond his control.

"I was the wingman," the former pilot tells Chicago Magazine in its April issue.

"I was not in charge of making decisions. It was, 'Shut up. hang on and say, Yes, sir.' I was the lowest person on the totem pole. I was, in effect, along for the ride."

The attack killed Pte. Richard Green, Pte. Nathan Smith, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer and Sgt. Marc Leger. They were the first Canadians to die in combat since the Korean War.

Eight others, all members of the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were injured.

In a reprimand from the U.S. Air Force, Schmidt, an Illinois National Guardsman, was accused of acting "shamefully" and exhibiting "arrogance and lack of flight discipline" during the deadly incident.

He was grounded and fined $5,000.

Schmidt appeared stoic during the inquiry into the incident, but his wife, Lisa, says she thought he was suicidal.

"I was afraid he was going to kill himself," Lisa Schmidt says in the magazine article.

Schmidt's personal anquish provides little solace for relatives of the four victims.

Joyce Clooney, grandmother of Pte. Richard Green, said Tuesday she would like Schmidt to stop defending his actions and say he's sorry.

"He should have made a public apology to the families," Clooney said in an interview from her home in Bridgewater, N.S.

"It would have meant a lot more coming from him than the president apologizing to the prime minister. It wasn't the prime minister's children or grandchildren who were killed. His problem is he always blames everyone else for what happened."

Richard and Claire Leger, parents of Sgt. Marc Leger, said the U.S. pilot's comments are too little, too late.

"I felt suicidal and I'm pretty darn sure that all of us felt suicidal," Claire Leger said.

"So welcome to the gang . . . We're all stuck in the same boat."

Richard Leger added that Schmidt would do well to remember his role in their son's death.

"He has never really helped any of the families. If he did anything, he made it worse."

Schmidt blames the bombing, on the night of April 17, 2002, on "the fog of war," saying he mistook the Canadian gunfire for an attack from Taliban fighters.

The pilot says superiors never told him the Canadians would be conducting live-fire exercises near Kandahar airport that night.

As well, Schmidt says he was flying under difficult conditions, on a long, 11-hour mission pumped up on amphetamines called "go pills."

He tells Chicago Magazine that the fight to defend himself, to explain his actions to the government, the military and the people of Canada and the United States, has inhibited his own grieving process.

"I don't know if I have been able to fully grieve," he says. "Because I was in a position where I had to protect my family from the start."

Schmidt was originally charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault, which could have resulted in a jail term, but the charges were reduced to dereliction of duty.

Maj. William Umbach, the flight leader, was also charged with assault and manslaughter.

Those charges were dismissed last summer and he was allowed to retire from the Air National Guard, as he had requested.

Personally I'd love to see the interview he gave to NBC...