Friendly Fire: The Untold Story of the U.S. Bombing that Killed Four Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan [Hardcover]

"The victims of your callous misbehavior were from one of our staunch allies in operation Enduring Freedom and were our comrades-in-arms." - Lt.-Gen.Bruce Carlson, from his letter of reprimand to Major Harry Schmidt.

"...it was an accident...it was nothing malicious. There is no glory in that." - Major Harry Schmidt, the U.S. Pilot who dropped the bomb.

"The pilots did not have to attack. That is our firm conclusion." - Gen. Maurice Baril, president of the Canadian Board of Inquiry.

"By placing the blame at the lowest possible level...the Air Force has protected the criminal negligence of its general officer corps." - Charles W. Gittins, attorney for Major Schmidt.

Tarnak Farm, near Kandahar, Afghanistan, pre-dawn, April 18, 2002.

Two American F-16 pilots returning to their base after an uneventful support mission suddenly notice flashes from the ground, thousands of feet below. They have no idea that what they are seeing in the darkness is a company of Canadian paratroopers conducting a live-fire training exercise. Convinced that he and his flight lead are being ambushed, Major Harry Schmidt unleashes a 500-pound laser-guided bomb. Minutes later, he knows he might have made a terrible mistake. "I hope that was the right thing to do," he says over the cockpit radio. "Me too," replies the other pilot, Major Bill Umbach.

Nearly four years later, the question still lingers: as it the right thing to do? Military investigators said no, concluding that the "reckless" airmen seemed more interested in earning a medal than ensuring their target was the enemy. The pilots-to this day-insist that they had no choice but to attack, that Maj. Umbach appeared to be seconds away from being shot out of the sky. Whichever side you believe, one undisputed fact remains: Four Edmonton-based paratroopers are dead, and the4ir heartbroken families and comrades are still struggling to cope with the loss, and in some cases, the guilt.

Friendly Fire offers an unflinching look at the event the transformed lives on both sides of the border and momentarily strained the states of Canada-U.S. relations. Based on thousands of pages of classified documents, never-before-published video, and dozens of exclusive interviews-including conversations with Harry Schmidt and Bill Umbach, the Illinois-based fighter pilots who were implicated in dropping the bomb-this book dramatically recreates the sequence of events and their chaotic aftermath, from the unprecedented criminal charges to the high-profile military hearing and the controversy that followed.