Posted on 07/05/2005 10:10:41 AM PDT by Jimbaugh
That site is a treasure trove. I am having a lot of fun with it right now. THANKS again.
The slip didn't get sold with the boat. The slip is currently occupied by Cunningham's new digs, i.e., the yacht owned by Wade. (Wade is the MZM defense contractor guy who bought Cunningham's house.) The boat that Cunningham sold is in Long Island now.
From the article:
The [Kelly C] sits forlornly on blocks in the shipyard of Consolidated Yachts at the end of Pilot Street not far from the Neptune Inn and Sammy's Fish Box restaurant.Its last sea voyage came with Cunningham at the helm. That was late in 2002 when Cunningham delivered it to the Glen Cove Marina near here, according to Joe Weiser, Glen Cove's owner. "He brought it here himself," Weiser said of Cunningham.
Cunningham also has lived aboard Wade's 42-foot yacht, the Duke-Stir, since April 2004 in the same slip once occupied by the Kelly C.
There's nothing in the article to indicate the boat was used as housing. It was a yacht that was not seaworthy.
If the sale included the docking slip, then I can see the price being justified.
In that case, the deal may have been legal, but it certainly wreaks of corruption.
If one believes Cunningham, it tripled in value. If one believes Kostogiannis, the boat would have gone from $200,000 to $1,200,000 ("appraisal for twice that amount") in 5 years, a six-fold increase. Even harder to believe.
Cunningham bought the 65-foot flat-bottom riverboat Kelly C from then-Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., for $200,000 in 1997. Five years later, he sold the boat for $600,000 to Thomas Kontogiannis, the Long Island businessman said yesterday.Kontogiannis defended the $600,000 price tag as "a steal," saying that he had received an appraisal for twice that amount.
Nice pad! After paying the gardener and the poolman, how much expendable income is left? LOL.
Ouch, I'm afraid I don't know the aneswer to that one...might take me a few days to get back to you. I know for sure that at least one C-130 was engaged by a MiG during the war, because one of my tech school instructors was the crew chief. They managed to escape the MiG, but there weren't any canyons involved, just a lot of jinking and some friendly fighters.
Typical of the the silly BS that used to go on in the days before the Fighter Mafia did their reform thing.
And of course, none of my comments about Ritchie and Cunningham were meant to denegrate their backseaters. WSO's and RIO's are every bit as good.
Forgot something...Cunningham got all his kills with missiles, and I think you're right about Ritchie, too. The was a manuever called the Raspberry roll (named after an instructor at the Fighter Weapons School) that was designed to take an F-4 in a turning fight and throw the MiG out in front. As a bonus, the MiG would be in the sweetest spot of the envelope for a Sparrow kill, and the rate of separation between the two aircraft would give the F-4 time to get a good shot. I might have a detial or two wrong (will come back and correct if so) but I know for sure that six out of the seven MiGs killed in the 1967 Mission Bolo fight with Rob Olds and the 555th were victims of this manuever. Ritchie might have been using it.
It sounds like Duke took courses at the Geraldine Ferraro school of campaign finance and corruption.
Just to refresh your memory, Ferraro bought an office building from a democrat contributor and sold it 6 weeks later for an 80,000 profit which in the early 80's was a lot of money. This came to light after Ferraro was chosen to be the democrat 1984 vp candidate.
It sounds like Duke is dirty.
Classic study in how NOT to launder bribes.
Please let me know if you come up with anything.
It's probably a story concocted by a C-130 pilot to pull someone's leg.
I googled "C-130 MIG Vietnam canyon" (shoulda thought of that before) and got the story from:
http://uscgaviationhistory.aoptero.org/history06.html
--
A report came in on a MiG in our vicinity. This is when the first MiG hit the formation. The first missile missed and the second hit Jolly 71 and it disintegrated. Everyone started yelling --- Migs - Migs --- TAKE IT DOWN! --- We headed for the weeds." The Helicopters made for the ground at max rate and Casey sent his C-130 diving toward earth. The refueling baskets for the helicopters were larger than those used to fuel the jets and had a max speed restriction when extended. This speed was exceeded before the drogues were fully retracted and both were lost on the way down.
A second MiG-21 joined in and came after Casey's C-130. Casey by now was at tree top level. Jolly 72 called out that a MiG passed his right side and was headed for Casey. When Casey was back at Eglin AFB checking out in the HC-130P he had stated that the "Herk" performed so well that it was like a four engine fighter plane. He was going to get the chance to prove it! Casey said he knew it would take three to five seconds for the MiG to get a missile lock, so he picked the canyon just ahead and jinked and flew his "Herk" in a series of unpredictable erratic maneuvers between the walls at tree top level. No missiles were launched that Casey knew of but he could see the bursts from the MiG's cannon hit the karst ahead. He said he was too busy to dwell on it. Moments later the C-130 emerged from the canyon --- the MiG-21 never did! Casey got his MiG, but due to the chaos that existed, never got confirmation on the "kill."
Cool. My instructor's story was a lot like that...they were on a helicopter refuel mission and they were jumped by a MiG and dove for the deck. I remember him describing tumbling along the floor of the cargo bay for what seemed like a year as they dove for the deck. They managed to call in some CAP F-4s and the MiG went home.
Additional note: The MiG driver violated one of the rules they teach at Top Gun and the Fighter Weapons School--Never get down in the dirt with those low-flying types. At Top Gun they've had graduation ecercises where they put one of the students up against an A-10 or an Apache, and if they use the F-14 interceptor-style it's a quick kill, but if they allow themselves to be pulled in low they get seriously humbled.
U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, under federal investigation for his dealings with a defense contractor, announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20050714-1520-ca-congressmanshouse.html
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