To the editor:
Some questions come to my mind involving the “friendly fire” incident and Maj. Harry Schmidt, questions I feel will never be answered officially or truthfully:
The first one is about our “friends” from the country up north, the same country that harbored our Vietnam-era draft dodgers. Did they, the Canadians, try to play some fun and games by having our pilots believe they were under fire and their gag backfired?
If our pilots had been killed by friendly Canadian fire, would our Air Force have taken the same hard stand or would it have been passed off for diplomacy?
If the status of our pilots had been full-time USAF as opposed to mobilized Air National Guard, would the Air Force still have followed the same action or is this an act of bias against Guard/Reserve members? Let us remember it was Guard/Reserve units that have bailed our military out more than once and will continue to do so.
Is there some higher-echelon blunder that has to be covered up and Maj. Schmidt is the designated fall guy as it was suspected that 2nd Lt. William Calley was the fall guy following the My Lai massacre in Vietnam?
To Maj. Schmidt I say: “Good luck, sir,” and in recognition of you being an officer and gentleman, I salute you.
Robert D. Shedron, USAR (retired)
Affton
