THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409100246
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Seeing shades of Tailhook in the action, some local pilots say the Air Force is making scapegoats of six officers by filing charges against them in the ``friendly fire'' deaths of 26 people killed in the downing of two helicopters over Iraq.
``It's lousy,'' said retired Navy Capt. Paul F. Hollandsworth, a Navy A-4 Skyhawk and A-6 Intruder pilot who heads the Hampton Roads Squadron of the Association of Naval Aviation. ``This sounds just about like Tailhook. We are trying to hang somebody . . . so the Air Force can get egg off its face.''
Naval aviation suffered a black eye from the notorious 1991 Tailhook convention, but the failure to produce any convictions in the case created a backlash against the investigation.
The Air Force said Thursday it would charge Lt. Col. Randy W. May, one of two F-15 pilots in the Iraq incident, with 26 counts of negligent homicide and two counts of dereliction of duty. In addition, five officers aboard the AWACS plane overseeing the F-15s face dereliction of duty charges. One of the five, Maj. Douglas L. Martin, is from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton.
The F-15s shot down two U.S. helicopters carrying U.N. personnel, mistaking the aircraft for Russian-made Hind helicopters used by the Iraqis.
``I've ground my molar teeth down to nothing over this,'' said a retired Air Force pilot from Hampton, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. ``It really got to me. Why are we charging these people? In World War II we blew down our own headquarters in Europe, but nobody was charged.''
The charges in the Iraq incident are the most serious in a friendly-fire case since World War II.
``We've had friendly-fire incidents on many occasions and nobody has been charged,'' said the Hampton pilot, who lectures at Langley. He asked that his name not be used.
Comparisons were drawn between the Iraq incident and Navy friendly fire deaths, such as the 1988 downing by mistake of an Iranian commercial airliner by the U.S. guided-missile cruiser Vincennes. All 290 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft were killed. No criminal charges were filed.
Likewise, no criminal charges were brought when the aircraft carrier Saratoga fired on a Turkish destroyer in 1992, killing the captain and four crew members. The Turkish government demanded courts-martial for those involved.
Like a number of military pilots contacted Friday, Hollandsworth questioned the wisdom of bringing the men to trial in the Iraq incident.
``Where does the buck stop?'' he asked. ``As I recall, the pilot had just gotten over there and had not flown that much. Where was the training? The guys in the AWACS screwed up too. ``I just don't remember any charges being filed in friendly-fire incidents.''
One active-duty F-15 pilot from Hampton, who also asked not to be identified, said the action sends a disturbing signal to service members.
``I think many people in the military find it absolutely outrageous,'' he said. ``What are we going to have to do in the future? Are these guys going to have to look over their shoulder whenever they do something?''
He added, ``It's such a tragedy, but I don't think you can hold these people accountable like that. You can't be second-guessing people in combat like that.''
KEYWORDS: FRIENDLY FIRE FATALITY ACCIDENT PLANE by CNB