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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Top Gun's misfire grounds career |
Current rating: 0 |
by Edmonton Journal
(No verified email address) |
20 Jun 2002
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Canadians are looking for answers in friendly fire incident that killed four of their soldiers in Afghanistan when a USAF F-16 from Springfield's 183rd Illinois Air National Guard Squadron dropped a laser-guided bomb on them. |
Top Gun's misfire grounds career: Prospects of flying fighter jets again appear remote
Edmonton Journal, Thursday, June 20, 2002
When a pair of U.S. F-16 fighter jets roared off a runway in Kuwait the night of April 17, they were piloted by two veteran airmen flying on two very different career paths.
The lead pilot, Maj. Harry Schmidt, 37, was a full-time fighter jock, a genuine "Top Gun" with a list of qualifications and experience that placed him in the highest ranks of the world's most elite occupation.
His wingman that night, flying in the other F-16, was Maj. Bill Umbach, 43, a competent airline pilot and part-time soldier who hoped the mission ahead of him would be among his last.
In the hours that followed over Afghanistan, both men's futures as military aviators were vapourized when Schmidt dropped a laser-guided bomb on what he believed to be enemy troops.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight injured. All were from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton.
Both pilots now face disciplinary action and possible courts martial or criminal action. Pending the final outcome of the Canadian and U.S. boards of inquiry, the prospect of either man flying fighter jets again appears remote.
The stinging indictment of their role in the accident, as outlined in the inquiry board report leaked to the New York Times on Tuesday, is particularly destructive for Schmidt, who once turned down an athletic scholarship to pursue his dream of flying fighter planes.
In the U.S. Navy, Schmidt would be tagged with the call sign "Psycho," but growing up in St. Louis, Mo., neighbours referred to the quiet boy on their street as "Augie," to avoid confusion with his father, Harry Sr., an electrician.
At St. John Vianney Catholic high school, Schmidt starred on the varsity sports teams.
His soccer coach, Mike Villa, remembers a soft-spoken teenager and outstanding goaltender. Classmate Brad Eilerman says Schmidt was a standout on the track team in high jump and long jump.
"He excelled at those things and had a good sense of humour," said Eilerman.
The stocky young man was offered athletic and academic scholarships at Westminister College in Missouri, but he was determined to join the navy. In 1983, he enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
At the academy, he met the woman who would become his first wife, Joanie, and the couple married before he left on active duty aboard the USS John F. Kennedy.
Schmidt 'Gifted' Pilot
On the aircraft carrier, Schmidt flew with the VFA 105 "Gunslingers," an elite F-18 unit that then included Ken Ham, his academy classmate and a future NASA astronaut, and Commander Robert Field, who would later become the lead pilot of the Navy's Blue Angels acrobatic team.
Aboard the Kennedy, Schmidt showed he was "a fabulous pilot, a phenomenal talent," according to Todd Steggerda, a former F-18 pilot who served in the VFA 105. "I can't imagine there was a pilot with his years of service who had more or higher quality training than Harry had.
"He was one of the most gifted pilots I ever flew with. He was very professional, very safe and conservative."
After duty on the Kennedy, Schmidt became an instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) near San Diego, where only the most elite pilots are trained in advanced combat techniques.
While at Top Gun, Schmidt and his wife divorced.
By the time he transferred to the Air Force fighter school in Nellis, Nev., in 1999, Schmidt had flown nearly 100 combat missions -- an astounding number for a pilot his age.
"The first thing I noticed about combat is that everyone, no matter how cocky they are, sits down and takes notice when people are shooting at them," he said in the interview.
The comment was eerily prescient of the Afghanistan bombing incident, in which, according to the New York Times account, Schmidt "did not take time to assess the threat properly before striking."
Sometime last year, Schmidt left the navy and joined the Illinois Air National Guard's 183rd Fighter Wing in Springfield, Ill., about two hours from his parents' home in St. Louis.
He and his wife, Lisa, and their two young children live in an opulent new home they had built on the edge of a golf course.
It was with the 183rd in Springfield that Schmidt first flew with Maj. William Umbach, a former U.S. Air Force pilot who, after active duty, joined the guard in 1985.
His father, a farmer in central Illinois, had also been a part-time pilot with the 183rd, flying fighters in early 1960s.
Figurehead Commander
Like most pilots in the 183rd, Umbach also flew passenger jets for a commercial airline.
During the week, he piloted Boeing 777s on international routes for United Airlines, then tried on weekends to squeeze in the required number of sorties to stay qualified on the F-16 fighter.
Umbach's dry humour made him popular with his squadron mates, who gave him the nickname "Guido," after Saturday Night Live's deadpan priest, Father Guido Sarducci.
Sometime in the mid-1990s, the fighter wing chose Umbach to become squadron commander. Some were surprised that the honour would go to a mere major, and not a lieutenant-colonel, as was the tradition in the unit.
But the position was seen as something of a figurehead, anyway, and it was always given to a part-time guardsman.
As the National Guard evolved from a homeland defence role to an overseas combat force, Umbach was selected to fly on combat missions with the 183rd in Iraq, patrolling the no-fly zone.
In March, he was forced to take military leave from United Airlines before he was sent to Kuwait to fly more Iraqi patrols and sorties over Afghanistan.
Kuwait's dusty Al Jaber airbase, by all accounts, was among the last places Umbach wanted to be while his three young children waited for him back in Illinois.
His alleged lack of leadership was cited in the inquiry into the bombing incident.
Umbach failed to "exercise leadership" when the more experienced Schmidt tagged his target with a laser and dropped the bomb, according to the Times.
Three years ago, Umbach and his family moved into a new home they built overlooking Petersburg Lake, a tranquil community about 20 minutes from the air force base. As soon as the Kuwait mission was over, friends said, he had planned to leave the guard to spend more time with his children.
Neither pilot has commented on the incident in Afghanistan.
When the Citizen visited Umbach's home on Petersburg Lake earlier this month, no one would answer the door or telephone.
When approached at his home in Springfield, Schmidt threatened to call the police.
For earlier reporting on this and other issues surrounding the Illinois National Guard, see:
http://www.ucimc.org/front.php3?article_id=5849 |
See also:
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/story.asp?id={CF11566A-3E4A-40A9-814D-BED7E7DE1C79}
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