I wish I had that pic of the MIG-25 buried in the sand!
Iraq Buries Warplanes To Hide Them From U.S. Aviation Week & Space Technology 08/11/2003, page 30 David A. Fulghum Washington Iraq buried Su-25s and MiG-25s to hide them from U.S. technical exploitation teams Underground Air Force U.S. teams from the Iraqi Survey Group still haven't found any Scud tactical ballistic missiles or obvious weapons of mass destruction, but they have uncovered a number of Su-25 ground attack and MiG-25 high-speed interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft (this Foxbat B was specialized for reconnaissance and electronic-intelligence gathering) buried at Taqqadum airfield west of Baghdad. Pictures of the discovery and excavation of this MiG-25 in July were recently shown during a Defense Intelligence Agency briefing at the Pentagon and then quickly made their way onto the Internet. Commenting on the pictures last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that U.S. investigators and technology exploitation teams had heard rumors that a "great many things had been buried, but we had not known where." It apparently took some time to find Iraqis who knew specifics about the hidden aircraft. "We'd been operating in that immediate vicinity for . . . 12-13 weeks and didn't know they were [there]," he said. Rumsfeld called the discovery a classic example of how easy it is to hide even something quite large. "Until you find somebody who tells you where to look, or until nature clears some sand away and exposes something over time, we're simply not going to know" all that the Iraqis hid before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, he said. The photos, by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. T. Collins are now posted on the Defense Dept.'s Internet news page. In a sequence of 13 photographs, the MiG25 emerges from underground with key areas wrapped in plastic coating to preserve them, and the twin vertical stabilizers covered in what appears to be camouflage netting. The aircraft apparently was buried after the wings were removed, but otherwise it looked in remarkably good condition prior to being towed away by a U.S. recovery team. Credit: USAF MSGT. T. COLLINS ========ps - I have two photos but do not know how to post jpg - can you tell me how?
