CHICAGO, June 25 (UPI) -- An Illinois Air National Guard pilot who mistakenly bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002 will not face criminal charges, his lawyer said.
Maj. Harry Schmidt will appear before a non-judicial hearing July 1 at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, the Air Force said. Schmidt may lose up to two months pay but will be allowed to remain in the Air National Guard as a non-flying officer until his retirement in 2007, his attorney Charles Gittins told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Schmidt is a former U.S. Navy Top Gun fighter instructor.
He chose to face court-martial on charges of dereliction of duty in the accidental "friendly fire" bombing that killed four Canadian troops and faced six months in a military prison.
The grandmother of one of the dead soldiers said she wanted Schmidt to be punished for his carelessness in dropping a 500-pound bomb but did not want him to go to jail.
A second pilot, Maj. William Umbach resigned last year.
