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Peculiar decisions from the top, however, apparently contributed to last week's whimpering climax. Shortly after the shoot-down, the Air Force granted immunity to Captain Eric Wickson, the F-15 pilot believed by many in the Pentagon to be most responsible for the catastrophe. The Air Force used his testimony against the other F-15 pilot, Lieut. Colonel Randy May. While May was senior in rank, Wickson was the so-called flight lead the day of the shoot-down, making Wickson largely responsible for what occurred. In part because of that prosecutorial decision, 26 charges of negligent homicide against May were dropped. Furthermore, the top officer responsible for the operation in northern Iraq, Brigadier General Jeffrey Pilkington, was never called to testify in the May proceeding. Yet he did testify at Wang's court-martial, where he said the F-15 pilots violated the rules of engagement when they launched missiles at the two Black Hawks after misidentifying them as Iraqi Hind helicopters. (Just how they violated the rules remains classified.)
The Air Force chief of staff announced last week that he is appointing an outside panel to scrutinize how his service investigates accidents. General Ronald Fogleman said the action was sparked by 18 major accidents so far this year and charges by a former top Air Force safety official, reported in Time in May, that Air Force crash probes often are cover-ups done by "incompetents, charlatans and sycophants."
But some things apparently don't change. The Air Force said last week that Wickson will become a full-fledged instructor of fighter fundamentals at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. This does not please Joan Piper, an Air Force wife whose daughter Laura, 25, died on one of the helicopters. Says Piper: "I don't think he should be a role model for the next generation of young pilots."