Posted on 04/16/2003 3:32:02 PM PDT by green team 1999
Yeah....right.
The problem is that the Armenians moved. Modern Archaeology has discovered that ancient Armenia is in the Mountains of north Iran. which would eplain how as the Bible says "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in Shinar..."
He also pointed out that the Navy had no pod-mounted camera systems in 1974.
The Navy utilized RF-8s and RA-5s for recce platforms not Phantoms. The Marine Corps had RF-4Bs flying with three VMCJ squadrons. However, this story doesn't pass the smell test.
OK, here goes with the analysis.
"The Independence was said to be en route to Athens for a scheduled liberty call and the F-4 reconnaissance flight delayed Independence's arrival in Athens by two days."
This was at the time of the Cyprus mess.
We sure as hell weren't making any port calls.
The Petty Officer was an Aviation Electrician Third Class (AE3). He claimed to have learned how to operate reconnaissance cameras by working with those who installed them on the aircraft. "My job involved ensuring that the central computer could communicate with the cameras once they were hooked up," he recalled. "The cameras were pod-mounted.
The Navy didn't use pod-mounted cameras--they used RF-8 Crusaders and RA-5 Vigilantes for photorecon work in 1974, and they had built-in cameras, as they were dedicated to the photo mission.
The pods were a universal mount type camera. I'm sure they're used on many different kinds of aircraft. ... On the F-4 they hung under the inboard sponson under both wings.
Amazing that a sailor doesn't know the difference between a sponson and a pylon.
There were two of them. The pods would hook into a universal cable. The universal cable could hook to camera pods or weapons and ran back into the airframe where they hooked into the central computer system. Inside each pod, there were two cameras that sort of rotated inside a glass bubble. They would lock onto the desired target. They were framing cameras; they would take several hundred frames per minute."
Lots of technobabble,
According to the Petty Officer, in June 1974 the commander of the Air Group on the Independence asked "me whether I knew how to operate the cameras. I said yes and he said that he wanted me to make a flight.
Without a current altitude chamber card or a seat qualification, I'm sure.
I guess the ranking pilots didn't want to take this mission. I had flown on a regular basis. I had quite a few flight hours because I would go up with the pilots to do aerial flight checks."
That is a load of bulls**t. Functional checkflights were performed by a pilot and a naval flight officer, the same crew that normally flew.
Despite, the Petty Officer's report, Deputy Director Manthorpe claimed Naval Intelligence "unable to locate any photographs," nor was it able to confirm that such a mission took place.
And he supplies the reasons why:
He noted the Independence did not deploy for the Mediterranean until July 19, 1974, but did deploy with VF-33, an F-4J aircraft.
VF-33 flew Phantoms...but was still in Norfolk until a month AFTER the alleged flight.
Manthorpe also noted that the ship's deck logs indicate it did not visit Athens during its 1974 deployment.
No deck log...no port call.
"The claim that Independence visited Athens is suspect in light of the Greco-Turkish hostilities over Cyprus that resulted in the USS Inchon evacuation on 22 July 1974," Manthorpe argued. "Greco-American relations were tense during this time frame because of American support for Turkey.
Yup. It would be like making a liberty call in Basra in October, 1990.
Even if the Greeks had permitted a liberty call safety of personnel probably would have caused [command] to cancel the liberty port."
They would, too.
Manthorpe also noted, that "having a Petty Officer fly as a back-seater for an F-4 mission instead of a Naval Flight Officer would have been highly unusual. He also pointed out that the Navy had no pod-mounted camera systems in 1974.
As I noted--the first Navy camera pods were made for F-14 Tomcats in the 1980s, when the Navy phased out the RF-8 and the RA-5C.
In addition, Manthorpe said the deck logs show the "Independence never got closer to Mt. Ararat than Araklion Bay, Crete, at Latitude 35 degrees, 49.4' N. Longitude, 25 degrees 03.8' E. during its 1974 deployment."
That's quite a ways away, especially if they were flying on the SOVIET side of the mountain.
Amazing that he never talks about getting bounced by Soviet fighters.
The Petty Officer insists he took the photos, noting that the "Turkish government definitely knew we were up there. Coming back, we didn't refuel and by the time we got to the ship we were running on fumes."
Uh-huh, boy would you ever...
Unless, another shipmate comes forward who was on that 1974 mission, the Petty Officer's claim will go down as just another story that vehemently disputed by Naval Intelligence.
No, it comes off as a sea story told by another wannabe hero. Maybe he got his a$$ kicked for claiming to be a Navy SEAL.
No, you idiot. The red circles were DRAWN ON THE PHOTOS to identify the anomally.
Obviously, those red arrows are NOT natural phenonema. They had to be put there somehow. Maybe the worlds largest bow.
Strange indeed. ;-)
Do you know if there are any expeditions planned or currently underway in Iran? I wonder if it would be more (or less) complicated to pursue research in Iran as compared to Turkey...
Looks kinda like a flatbed truck.
Probably going to use it to bring the arrows down off the mountain for study.
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