Harry Schmidt (Air National Guard)
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- ''For the General who commanded the Fourth Marine Division, in the Pacific, during World War 2, see Harry Schmidt (USMC).
Schmidt (whose flight name was "Psycho"), and his flight lead, Major William Umbach, were returning from a 10-hour patrol, at more than 15,000 feet, when they spotted surface fire. Thinking Umbach was under attack, Schmidt asked flight control permission to fire his 20 mm cannons, to which flight control replied "hold fire." Four seconds later, Schmidt said he was "rolling in, in self defense." He dropped a laser-guided bomb 35 seconds later.
On September 11, 2002, Schmidt and Umbach were officially charged with 4 counts of negligent manslaughter, 8 counts of aggravated assault, and 1 count of dereliction of duty, but Schmidt's charges were later reduced (on June 30, 2003) to dereliction of duty. He was initially offered non-judicial punishment proceedings before Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, 8th Air Force Commander, on June 19, 2003, which he declined to accept, demanding trial by court-martial. The charge was referred to a court-martial on June 30, 2003. On June 24, 2004--in connection with negotiations between the prosecution and Schmidt's attorneys--Schmidt was allowed to reverse his earlier demand for trial by court-martial and accept the previously offered non-judicial punishment proceedings. The charges against Umbach were later dismissed.
According to the defense lawyers of the two pilots, Schmidt and Umbach were told by their superiors to use "go pills" (amphetamines) on their missions, and blamed the incident on the drugs. Schmidt's defense also blamed the fog of war, specifically poor and needlessly complex communication procedures regarding the identification of friendly forces on the ground.
After a closed, non-judicial punishment hearing held at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Schmidt was found guilty on July 6, 2004 of dereliction of duty and was docked nearly $5,700 in pay and reprimanded. The reprimand, written by Lt. Gen. Carlson as part of the non-judicial punishment said Schmidt had "flagrantly disregarded a direct order", "exercised a total lack of basic flight discipline", and "blatantly ignored the applicable rules of engagement."
On July 8, 2004, Schmidt's lawyer Charles Gittins announced plans to appeal the ruling and to file a lawsuit against the Air Force over the public release of documents in the case. On April 7, 2006, Schmidt filed a lawsuit complaining of violations of the Privacy Act for the release.
The eight wounded in the incident were Sergeant Lorne Ford, Corporal René Paquette, Corporal Curtis Hollister, Corporal Brent Perry, Corporal Brian Decaire, Private Norman Link, Master Corporal Stanley P. Clark and Corporall Shane Brennan.
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