Posted on 03/03/2006 2:18:39 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Hmmmm.
I wonder where he go that?
go = got
According to Roger Hedgecock, his two pensions will pay him approximately, $60K annually.
1. Duke took MILLIONS to betray his constituents.
2. Duke wore a wire to rat out his buddies.
Yeah, I think there's a good chance he'll "go bitch", even at his age.
The story suggests his life expectancy is seven more years. If he makes it to release, it won't be by much.
It was just as the two F-4s came out of their bomb runs that Driscoll, looking back over his shoulder to observe the impacts, noticed “black dots on the horizon...really coming up fast.”
MiGs, as many as 20 of them. The radio was a jumble of confused calls: “Bandits! Bandits!” and, “MiG-17! MiG-17!...He’s on my tail!” Grant, coming up about 1,000 feet behind Cunningham and Driscoll, called, “Duke, you have MiG-17s at your seven o’clock, shooting!”
For once Cunningham had been caught off guard. He turned hard to port—normally a mistake against the 17, but these were coming so fast that they couldn’t match the turn. The leader overshot. He was inside the AIM-9 minimum range when Cunningham fired, but in the time it took the missile to accelerate the Fresco opened the distance and the Sidewinder tracked right up the its tailpipe. The 17 came apart in a fireball. Three.
Going to afterburner, Cunningham and Grant zoom-climbed to 15,000 feet for a look around. As Cunningham later recalled, “The scene below was straight out of The Dawn Patrol.” While a Fresco plunged earthward in a flaming death dive, eight more were circling with a trio of F-4s, everyone trying to watch his tail, cover his friends’ and get a shot at the enemy’s.
Still packing plenty of fuel, Cunningham and Grant winged over to rejoin the fight, nearly colliding with another Phantom as it broke from the circle—Showtime 112, piloted by Commander Dwight Timm, VF-96’s second in command, who had no less than three MiGs after him. And he only saw two of them. The nearest, a 17, was right in his blind spot, below and to the outside of the Phantom’s port turn.
Cunningham had a Sidewinder tone, but on whom? Of three hot jet pipes ahead two belonged to Timm’s Phantom. “Reverse starboard!” he called.
But Timm, still unaware of the MiG under his tail, only knew that a starboard turn would allow the two he had in view to close. He held his course, and the Fresco slowly hauled its nose up toward him.
“Duke, we have four MiG-17s at our seven o’clock,” reported Driscoll. “Look at two o’clock high!”
Cunningham looked up to see the glint of sunlight off canopies—two more MiGs rolling in to the attack. “There can’t be any more 17s in the world!” he thought—rightly, it turned out. These last were newer MiG-19s (17s with twin engines), a type which downed two U.S. aircraft on that day alone.
With six MiGs now trying to achieve firing solutions on him, Cunningham had to forget Timm for the moment. He turned into the 19s’ attack; they slashed harmlessly past. Now at 550 knots, Cunningham could simply outrun the Frescos behind him. Unless he turned back toward Timm, who was still tracking around to port. In a few more seconds the 17 would have him dead in its sights.
Telling Driscoll to keep an eye out astern, Cunningham rolled back to port. He had an intermittent Sidewinder tone—on the MiG? The X.O.? He still couldn’t be sure....
Driscoll, head craned to the rear, shouted that the nearest 17 was pulling enough lead for a shot. With tracer flying past Cunningham straightened out, blasting beyond the MiG’s reach. But now there were four 21s closing from nine o’clock high.
For the last time Cunningham turned toward Timm. “Showtime, reverse starboard! Reverse starboard, goddamnit!”
Finally Timm, having outdistanced the two MiGs he could see, broke hard to the right. The pursuing Fresco, doing 400 knots, couldn’t roll fast enough to follow and Cunningham hit the trigger. “Fox Two!”
The Fresco exploded on impact; Cunningham narrowly avoided hitting its pilot as he ejected. Four!
But the ones behind him had cut the turn and were closing in again. And the four Fishbeds, having given up on Timm, were now bearing down on Cunningham as well.
“Break! Break!” yelled Driscoll. “Give me all you’ve got!”
Cunningham, with the Frescos right behind him, turned into the 21s; for an instant eight or nine aircraft occupied the same air space and then suddenly, as air battles do, the sky cleared. Showtime 100 was alone. Timm, far below, was streaking for the coast; somewhere in the tangle Cunningham had gotten separated from Grant. “Everywhere I looked there were MiGs and no F-4s.... It was time to get out.”
Coast-bound at 10,000 feet, Cunningham and Driscoll had little time to reflect on their triumph. (For disregarding his own safety in saving his superior Cunningham won the Navy Cross, was nominated for the Medal of Honor, and got “a big kiss” from Mrs. Timm.) Driscoll, his head swiveling to clear their tail, wasn’t watching his radar scope, but about 30 miles from the coast Cunningham spotted one more MiG, a 17 coming up from twelve o’clock low—a head-on intercept, just as Cunningham had practiced at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, the famous “Top Gun.”
Everything is subjective to them. If Katrina had happened during Clinton's administration, the media would have blamed the local officials. They would be disappointed that they could not find a republican to blame, but the reporting would be very different.
He's requested a fed prison with medical facilites --- he's battled cancer.
I know of one in CA --- Victorville, which is relatively close to San Diego: 3 hours drive.
If I could work my will he would lose the hand with which he took the bribes.
That would be the ultimate punishment, wouldn't it? Take away his sweet pension and health plan.
Seems to be a common malady in government.
In such a situation the textbook calls for the attacking fighter—in this case the MiG, as all Cunningham wanted to do was get home—to veer off, gaining room to come around on the target’s tail after the flyby. The defender must cut the pass as close as possible, to deny the foe turning room, and then blast away before he can catch up.
Cunningham held his nose on the Fresco, expecting it to turn aside. But the enemy pilot had never been to Top Gun. He came dead on, guns aflame.
Stunned, Cunningham hastily hauled the Phantom up into a climb, figuring the 17 to just keep going. Instead he looked back to see “the MiG, canopy to canopy with me, barely 300 feet away!”
The MiG pilot had pulled up with him. “I could see a gomer leather helmet, gomer goggles, gomer scarf, and the intent gomer expression,” recalled Cunningham. “There was no fear in this guy’s eyes.”
http://www.donhollway.com/articles/topgun/topgun/topgun.html
For those that would like to read of Cunnigham before his final crash and burn...
It's hard to find people willing to take the cat launch off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier that DO NOT have this trait......
Article Update...
'Duke' gets 8 years, 4 months in prison
Cunningham taken into custody, ordered to repay $1.8 million
By Karen Kucher, Greg Gross and Angelica Martinez
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
SAN DIEGO – Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham was taken into custody Friday after being sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution for accepting bribes from defense contractors.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence for Cunningham, the maximum available under his plea agreement. His lawyers asked for six years.
U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns sentenced Cunningham to 60 months and 40 months in prison on two counts, the sentences to run consecutively. Burns also ordered Cunningham to repay $1.8 million.
Before Burns passed sentence, Cunningham told the judge that “after years of service, I made a very wrong turn. Your honor, no man has ever been so sorry.
“I did it to myself,” Cunningham said. “I could have said no and I didn't. It was me.”
Deputy U.S. marshals led Cunningham away immediately after the hearing. He was to be held at the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown pending a medical evaluation. After that, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons would decide where Cunningham was to serve out his sentence.
There was speculation Cunningham might be sent to a privately run federal facility in Taft.
Cunningham, 64, appeared gaunt and shaky as he entered the courtroom Friday.
He wiped his eyes as defense attorney K. Lee Blalack described the ex-congressman's actions as “quite egregious,” but still argued for the shortest possible sentence, calling six years “a substantial prison term.”
“This man has been humiliated by his own name,” Blalack said. “He is estranged by those he knows. He will go to jail. Under that scenario, no member of Congress can conclude that he got away.
“Given his age, health, life service ... six years does it.”
Prosecutors argued that Cunningham had betrayed the public's trust and disgraced his office not merely for the sake of greed, but $2.4 million worth of greed, an unprecedented level of corruption made worse by Cunningham's role as a federal lawmaker.
“The public trusts us to uphold the law,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Forge. “When the public sees the man who makes the laws become the man who breaks the law, his sentence should reflect that.”
The courtroom in the federal courthouse downtown was filled to capacity, with news reporters taking seats in the jury box as well as in the gallery.
When Cunningham arrived, he was greeted and hugged by well-wishers, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine. When Father Joe Carroll arrived, he and Cunningham hugged and clasped hands in greeting. Carroll, who runs a local shelter for the homeless, took a seat directly behind the disgraced ex-congressman.
Willie Driscoll, who with Cunningham won fame in a Navy F-4 Phantom II over North Vietnam, also was in the courtroom.
Cunningham pleaded guilty Nov. 28 to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery and honest-services fraud. He resigned from office the same day.
In their legal filings last month, prosecutors argued that he deserved the maximum sentence – the harshest ever given a congressman – because he “used his congressional office to get rich.”
“The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes against the people of the United States are unprecedented for a sitting Member of Congress. So, too, should be his sentence,” the federal prosecutors wrote.
“For the better part of a decade, Cunningham, in effect, erected a 'for sale' sign upon our nation's capital.”
Cunningham's lawyers asked in their written arguments for the sentence of no more than six years, contending his health – he has suffered from prostate cancer and other ailments – probably gives him no more than seven years to live.
The defense cited Cunningham's military career and lengthy public service, and argued that he had already lost his home along with much of his belongings, and faces a massive tax bill over income he failed to report.
They also offered a statement from a psychiatrist who said Cunningham's corruption stemmed from “an outsized ego and a mantle of invulnerability” that enabled him to rationalize his actions.
Cunningham, a naval aviator, was a Vietnam war ace and a Top Gun pilot who rode that fame into political office. He was elected to Congress in 1990 and was elected again seven times, representing a large part of northern San Diego and much of the North County.
In 1998, he was named to the House Appropriations Committee, where he served on the defense subcommittee. He also sat on the House Intelligence Committee and was chairman of a subcommittee overseeing human intelligence analysis and counterintelligence.
Federal investigators began to investigate Cunningham's financial dealings after a Copley News Service story published in The San Diego Union-Tribune in June reported that a defense contractor bought Cunningham's Del Mar-area home and then sold it for a $700,000 loss.
Cunningham sold the house for $1.675 million in November 2003, but the buyer, defense contractor Mitchell Wade, never moved in and almost immediately put it back on the market. Wade sold it 261 days later for $975,000.
The federal investigation subsequently found that two contractors paid $2.4 million in bribes to Cunningham, who at one point created a “bribe menu” that spelled out the amount of money it would take to free up federal contracts.
Last Friday, Wade, 46, admitted in federal court he conspired to funnel more than $1 million in bribes to Cunningham.
Wade pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and single counts of using interstate facilities to promote bribery and of election fraud. He faces a possible 11-year prison sentence and a fine.
The other contractor linked to the Cunningham bribes is Brent Wilkes, head of ADCS Inc., a defense contractor who lives in Poway.
Wilkes agreed to pay off a $525,000 mortgage on Cunningham's Rancho Santa Fe home in exchange for $6 million in government funds, according to court documents.
When he pleaded guilty in November, Cunningham agreed to forfeit $1.8 million in bribes, his financial interest in the Rancho Santa Fe home he and his wife have since sold and a long list of antiques and other furnishings now to be auctioned off by the government.
Prosecutors said he also owed the Internal Revenue Service $1.57 million in back taxes, penalties and interest, although Cunningham and his lawyers disputed that amount.
That would put on a par with 95% of the inhabitants of Washington DC.
True, but they do not go on to betray their country.
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