![]() ![]() “I don’t know how much it costs but that’s a sore spot for me. “They kind of cut corners by having him train on-site instead of sending him to Mesa where they have an actual training program," Reidy’s wife, Jennifer Reidy, told Army Times. Instead, he did a combined aircraft and instructor pilot qualification course in Saudi Arabia. He didn’t go to the Boeing plant in Mesa, Arizona, for his qualifications, where the defense firm had trained past Army aviators and contractors on the AH-6i. Reidy began instructor pilot qualifications on the AH-6i in April 2018. They had to obtain a royal decree to allow their foreign aircraft to land there. That made it all the more frustrating when Reidy died, and they refused to permit the deceased American soldier to be given a ramp ceremony on their airfield, forcing Reidy’s comrades to take his remains to King Salman Air Base instead. military assistance to increase the instructor presence, according to the investigation. Saudi Guard officials originally requested U.S. “That sounds like a job that should have been performed by a contractor provided by the manufacturer or a third party that has more time in type.” “Honestly, I think that pilot should have had more time in that particular type of aircraft, but that speaks to more systemic problems with the foreign military sales system,” he said. Their rigid schedules forced them to graduate on preset dates regardless of the number of flight hours missed due to weather or maintenance delays. ![]() The investigation also found that Saudi students trained to time, not proficiency. program to train Saudi pilots “lacks the skills to accomplish the mission," but still allowed for “mission creep” over the year prior to Reidy’s death, expanding its flight instruction to the AH-6i “to fill a Boeing contractual void.” ![]() The investigation determined that the U.S. Army Office of the Program Manager tasked to modernize Saudi Arabia’s National Guard - a force outside the regular Saudi military that protects the royal family from internal threats. “Inexperience with single engine aircraft, compounded by the need of OPM-SANG to rapidly train a successor to, allowed CW4 Reidy to be put in a situation where he was teaching with minimal preparation,” the investigation reads. ![]()
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