The Air Force is
prosecuting a Joint Base Lewis-McChord pilot for a 2011 training
accident that led to the death of a Special Forces paratrooper.
Capt.
Jared Foley faces six months in prison for each of three counts of
dereliction of duty and up to one year of confinement for another charge
of reckless endangerment, according to an 18th Air Force spokesman.
His court-martial is scheduled to begin Tuesday at Lewis-McChord.
Foley
was the pilot of a C-17 Globemaster III during a daytime training
exercise in Montana that went awry when parachutist Sgt. Francis Campion
from the West Virginia National Guard landed outside a planned drop
zone.
The Air Force accuses Foley of recklessly endangering
Campion’s life on that July 10, 2011, mission by clearing an additional
airdrop without gaining approval from his operations command.
Campion
reportedly was the last one out of the plane during windy conditions.
He was supposed to land at Fort Harrison’s Marshall Field, but wound up
on a roof and fell to his death.
At the time, the Lewis and Clark
County coroner speculated that a gust of wind caught the chute and
dragged Campion off the building.
“He wasn’t injured upon the
impact with the roof, but when he was knocked over and fell off. He had
no buoyancy from the chute,” Lewis and Clark County Coroner Mickey
Nelson told the Helena Independent Record.
Nelson further said the parachute was sound.
“In
my opinion, the chute didn’t fail and there wasn’t any operator error,”
Nelson told the newspaper. “He was very experienced. He was doing
everything right.”
Campion, of Holidaysburg, Pa., served with the
2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group of the National Guard. He
deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 and received multiple awards and ribbons
for his service.
Campion was an outdoorsman who earned a degree
in environmental studies from Pennsylvania State University Altoona,
according to his obituary in the Altoona Mirror. He also was an
experienced Army paratrooper in Special Forces airborne units.
Foley
serves with McChord’s 62nd Operations Support Squadron of the 62nd
Airlift Wing. The Air Force declined to release information about his
service record. Air Force Times reported that Foley has been selected
for promotion to major.
Air Force prosecutors and Foley’s military defense attorney declined to comment through an Air Force spokesman.
The
Air Force accuses Foley of reckless conduct for his alleged approval of
the late jump. His three counts of dereliction of duty are:
• Failing to refrain from executing an additional airdrop after passing a drop zone.
• Failing to obtain approval to carry out that jump.
• Failing to enter accurate data into his mission computer.
The
62nd Airlift Wing continually deploys C-17 crews to missions in the
Middle East, where pilots deliver troops and supplies to forward bases
in a region stretching from East Africa to Afghanistan.
McChord
Air Field is one of the Air Force’s largest hubs for C-17 transport
jets, with 51 of the $250 million machines stationed here. The airmen in
the 62nd can be tapped to train on joint-service exercises around the
country.
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com
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