Posted on 11/27/2001 1:52:03 PM PST by sandydipper
Today I had conversation with a commercial pilot who said that in July of 1996 just after the SHOOT DOWN of TWA800 a co-worker also a commercial pilot told him that he was sent to Paris to pick up the TWA president and fly him back to DC. The second pilot was a military pilot at the time and said that as soon as they returned to DC the TWA guy was helicoptered to the White House.
I come to be cynical through second-hand experience. In brief; many years ago my father, Col. ----- -----(deceased), was one of 12 communications officers assigned as the 'wide receiver' to the president's football. Each shift consisted of one week on (7/12s), two off. Two officers (red and blue) were assigned to the communication booth simultaneously on each watch. Timeframe: three years contiguous during the last part of the Kennedy and the early part of the Johnson administration. Responsibilities included distributing information from all the armed forces to the president and visa-versa. A direct line the W/H was on their desk. When on duty these communications officers were 'The Button' should a war or outbreak occur, which means it was their responsibility to distribute launch codes, etc. with IBM cards which were stored in a double-locked (red and blue locks) plywood box at their feet. The president's physician was the only one authorized to tend to any medical needs of these communications officers. Imagine the security clearance that implies!! OK...enuf preface.
Several years ago, upon the approach of my father's passing, he shared with me a few tidbits of information which he was privy to during that auspicious assignment. The few items he did pass along were literally part of a deathbed confession, most of that conversation was more personal in nature. Knowing that he was not long to live he shared with me that one of his greatest regrets was his curiosity about the Kennedy assassination. He happened to be on duty when all that transpired and he cited several anomalies that he witnessed, there in the catbird seat, which have never been addressed publicly and probably never will be. His question still lay like lead at my feet..."I'd like to know who killed Kennedy." I will not belabor that particular issue but mention this only to carry forward the understanding that my father knew of conspiracies, was passively involved in conspiracies, understood the viability and success of military and government cover-ups and he knew that the public may never know or may not even care about what goes on below board.
A few other issues surfaced in our political conspiratorial conversations, some of which have finally been made public decades later. There is no need for me to bring those to light because there seems to be a resounding lack of interest in old news. However, I will bring one issue to light which proves, for me and my 'source', the concept that we are not necessarily being fed the truth in all thing military or political.
After my father retired from the service he befriended a fellow who was the top of the loop in a certain political/military arena under the watch of the Carter administration. I cannot reveal his name simply because he asked me not to in context with the following event.
The failed Eagle Claw Rescue Mission in Iran is publicly known to have failed due to several cascading events with the final Murphy being the described as one of the RH-53 helicopters hovering or flying into one of the refueling tankers at the Desert One refueling/rendezvous point. This so-called accident resulted in a fuel conflagration, which consumed the helicopter in question and the refueling tanker. Please review the photograph I will provide on request. (I don't yet know how to post a photo.) You will see that one of the main rotor blades of the errant RH-53, partially burned out, at the forefront of the photograph. Please notice that the tip of that rotor blade is intact with the body of the blade pointing roughly in the direction of the main rotor hub. Aerial photographs ( I no longer have the aerial photograph but would like to find another source, if anyone might assist) also reveal that the outer sections of all six of the RH-53 rotor blades are laying on the ground, symmetrically arrayed, around the burned-out hulk of the helicopter fuselage. All the tips of the main rotor blades are intact.
Any helicopter jock, as I once was, knows that when rotor blades, with enough velocity to taxi or hover, strike anything such as a refueling tanker, the blades will shatter at the tips and if the strikes are deep enough will shatter at the roots and stack into the offending, immovable object. There is not a chance in hell that the blades would remain intact at the tips or symmetrically arrayed.
I brought this anomaly to the attention of my 'unnamed source' at the request of my father. His reply was that I might also observe that the C130 tanker burned from the top down, not from the bottom up. A bottom up burn would usually indicate a major fuel spill from the EC-130's 18,000 gallon fuselage bladder, which is the story we are asked to believe. A top down burn indicates that the fuel cells in the wing were first to burn. My unnamed source also revealed to me that instead of the popular story which was publicly aired, the reason for the final failure was due to an aerial attack against our refueling/rendezvous station, Desert One. He followed up by saying that it was not Iran that attacked. He would not tell me who was responsible, saying that someday it might be revealed. At this point my unnamed source asked me not to use his name should I carry this information forward someday. I will respect his request.
Additional logic and research indicates that we lost too many patriots in this conflagration at Desert One for this to have been a simple hovering or low speed, low altitude collision and fuel cell rupture. I have personally witnessed and experienced how quickly other personnel and I can 'unass' a broken helicopter even or especially in the midst of fire. Eight fatalities, although possible, typically makes no sense under the circumstances described in the official report.
One more item which drew my attention upon reading the personal accounts of the surviving helicopter crew. Some indication seems to exist, based on their account, that there might have been at least one and possibly two explosive events as the helicopter was being abandoned.
The point of all the above is merely to exemplify that the military and the government can and will adjust, shade, or outright lie if deemed necessary. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident is another, now publicized example. It has taken over 30 years for the truth to come out on that issue. How many others issues still lay twisted in our history books and on the pages of our 'news' sources?
One might surmise, upon reading the above accounts, that I am anti-government. My politics is one of absolute loyalty to this United States of America and to our flag and all it stands for, even if that loyalty means that our information from our representatives and officials is not always truthful. I am willing to live with such imperfections as long as the United States Constitution remains intact and as long as We The People can question and debate and correct that information. I believe this is the best government and nation on earth and nothing will ever shake that personal resolve. I also believe that We The People, as the government, have the responsibility to oversee and continually correct errant behavior of our officials. That is the purpose of the United States Constitution and that is our most important responsibility. For us, as a people, to fail in 'grasping at straws' will eventually result in the failure of our cohesiveness as a nation and allow the power to shift from The People to a government that has no accountability. A government without accountability will always yield to control by despots and radicals.
I have little sympathy for the public of other countries that have been 'taken over' by despots such as we recently observed in the past years in Afghanistan and in other nations. It is said that no government can stand without the approval of the population. I believe that wholeheartedly. It is the populations that ultimately control the moral authority in any country. Should that population, regardless of the government status, yield control then it is my belief that they get what they deserve. There are no other excuses.
I can offer no further proof of what I have learned, personally experienced and what my motives might be. If one is doubtful of what I have put forth here then I guess that's OK. Indeed that is also 'grasping at straws'.
I'd trust the pilot for two reasons: 1) He knows what a missile launch looks like, night or day. He's supposed to. He's trained to know what it looks like. 2)He has no reason to lie.
Now, wiseguy, where's YOUR proof? Besides, a meter long missile launch tube would be impossible to find on the ocean floor. And the NTSB.. well, if they truly belived that.. all 747's world wide would be grounded until the supposed 'wiring fault' was fixed. There's other things, but space doesn't permit here yet. As for the proof that we gave Stingers to the Afghanis.. haven't you been paying attention the last few months? This has been known for months. CIA admitted it. It was reported in the press. They cannot account for them all. Gee.. think about that.
And satellites going over head are moving either northward, or southward. Geo-stationarty sats are in the wrong area at the wrong angle to see such. And the Ikonos wouldn't have the resolution to see such a pathetic heat plume. Even if it could see IR.Aircraft based senosrs would have had the best chance of seeing such an event... And there weren't any of the right type in the area.
Interesting post, but the Standard is already used on lowly frigates, and can't be used on the only destroyers that don't already carry it, because they don't have the appropriate launchers. In addition, the key to your story is this phrase: "autonomous terminal homing". To be effective against the weapons described in your story (high-speed seaskimming missiles, stealth bombers etc.) you have to be able to engage them at distances greater than those possible with only an IR seeker. Otherwise, you end up with an expensive, and very slow rate of fire CWDS. The IR missiles listed in your story all have relatively short acquistion ranges, and (with the exception of ASRAAM)use vectored thrust to compensate for their small window of opportunity to engage and intercept their targets. By comparison, the Standard is large and clunky. It was designed to hit relatively large contacts at long range. The IR seeker in the Block IIIB Standard was put there to increase its endgame lethality against small targets at long range. Not to provide initial autonomous guidance.
Yes, and our fourth estate has an equally fine record of covering up military mistakes and accidents (sarcasm intended). There certainly wasn't much of an uproar when the Greenville sunk the Japanese trawler. And that bombing accident in Kuwait several months ago didn't generate much press speculation. Not to mention Tailhook, the Jenny Flynn sex debacle etc etc. Yep, if there is one thing that is certain, it is that the media falls all over itself to cover up military controversy. I'm sure they'd do whatever it took to cover up a little shootdown of a U.S. flag carrier jumbo jet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.