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CNN Live At Daybreak

Friendly Fire Hearing in Louisiana

Aired January 14, 2003 - 05:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now for more on that friendly fire hearing in Louisiana. The hearing will determine if two Illinois National Guard pilots should be court-martialed.
CNN's Ed Lavandera reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One night last April, the skies over Kandahar were patrolled by Bill Umbach and his wing man, Harry Schmidt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it looked like things being fired at us.

LAVANDERA: The pilots' attorneys say the men were warned al Qaeda forces could ambush their patrol. When the veteran pilots reached Kandahar, they saw surface to air missiles tracing the night sky toward their F-16s.

CHARLES GITTINS, SCHMIDT'S ATTORNEY: The rocket propelled munitions that they saw looked like a weapons system that has been used against American aircraft and when they saw that weapons system looking like it was being employed against them, that triggered the right and obligation of self-defense.

LAVANDERA: This wasn't an enemy attack. A Canadian Army unit was in the middle of a live fire training mission. The pilots say they were never told friendlies would be working in that area.

GITTINS: It's incomprehensible to me that in the middle of a combat zone the pilots would not be provided information of a critical nature about what's going on on the ground below them.

LAVANDERA: The pilots asked for permission to fire. They were told to wait. Four minutes passed by. The missiles kept coming. Major Harry Schmidt, a top gun instructor, called self-defense and dropped a 500 pound bomb. Four Canadians were killed, eight others injured. Now, two American pilots could face 64 years in a military prison for this friendly fire disaster.

MARLENE UMBACH, PILOT'S WIFE: There's child molesters and mass murderers out there that get, you know, less years in prison than these guys are being charged for, and these are good, you know, good all American boys. They're out to protect their country.

LAVANDERA: The pilots' attorneys will blame a communication breakdown and the use of so-called "go pills" for causing the accident. "Go pills" contain Dexedrine, an amphetamine used to keep pilots awake on long missions. Some say the pills hamper good judgment and perception.

GITTINS: You could take out the communication problems, you could take out the drug issue and everything else and it still boils down to at a moment in time two American patriots, who were well trained based on what they saw, believed they were under attack.

LAVANDERA: But it's not that simple for the families of the four Canadian soldiers killed by the friendly fire bombing. Richard and Clare Leger have come to this Air Force base in northern Louisiana to find justice for their son and his comrades.

CLARE LEGER, CANADIAN SOLDIER'S MOTHER: We can't bring them back but we'll damn well make sure the other soldiers are not be forgotten and not -- they're going to have to be treated a lot better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The hearing is expected to last up to three weeks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 14, 2003 - 05:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now for more on that friendly fire hearing in Louisiana. The hearing will determine if two Illinois National Guard pilots should be court-martialed.
CNN's Ed Lavandera reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One night last April, the skies over Kandahar were patrolled by Bill Umbach and his wing man, Harry Schmidt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it looked like things being fired at us.

LAVANDERA: The pilots' attorneys say the men were warned al Qaeda forces could ambush their patrol. When the veteran pilots reached Kandahar, they saw surface to air missiles tracing the night sky toward their F-16s.

CHARLES GITTINS, SCHMIDT'S ATTORNEY: The rocket propelled munitions that they saw looked like a weapons system that has been used against American aircraft and when they saw that weapons system looking like it was being employed against them, that triggered the right and obligation of self-defense.

LAVANDERA: This wasn't an enemy attack. A Canadian Army unit was in the middle of a live fire training mission. The pilots say they were never told friendlies would be working in that area.

GITTINS: It's incomprehensible to me that in the middle of a combat zone the pilots would not be provided information of a critical nature about what's going on on the ground below them.

LAVANDERA: The pilots asked for permission to fire. They were told to wait. Four minutes passed by. The missiles kept coming. Major Harry Schmidt, a top gun instructor, called self-defense and dropped a 500 pound bomb. Four Canadians were killed, eight others injured. Now, two American pilots could face 64 years in a military prison for this friendly fire disaster.

MARLENE UMBACH, PILOT'S WIFE: There's child molesters and mass murderers out there that get, you know, less years in prison than these guys are being charged for, and these are good, you know, good all American boys. They're out to protect their country.

LAVANDERA: The pilots' attorneys will blame a communication breakdown and the use of so-called "go pills" for causing the accident. "Go pills" contain Dexedrine, an amphetamine used to keep pilots awake on long missions. Some say the pills hamper good judgment and perception.

GITTINS: You could take out the communication problems, you could take out the drug issue and everything else and it still boils down to at a moment in time two American patriots, who were well trained based on what they saw, believed they were under attack.

LAVANDERA: But it's not that simple for the families of the four Canadian soldiers killed by the friendly fire bombing. Richard and Clare Leger have come to this Air Force base in northern Louisiana to find justice for their son and his comrades.

CLARE LEGER, CANADIAN SOLDIER'S MOTHER: We can't bring them back but we'll damn well make sure the other soldiers are not be forgotten and not -- they're going to have to be treated a lot better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The hearing is expected to last up to three weeks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com