Posted on 07/20/2002 10:55:01 AM PDT by RCW2001
Saturday, July 20, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/20/national1301EDT0525.DTL
(07-20) 10:01 PDT WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) --
A man armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire on a helicopter landing in a residential neighborhood, thinking the chopper was carrying terrorists, police said.
Helicopter pilot John S. Sutton landed his helicopter July 13 at the home of businessman John Peters to pick him up, police said.
John Chwaszczewski, a semiretired construction worker, became alarmed when he saw the chopper swoop down over his garage, about a block from Peters' home.
"Maybe I overreacted, but I did feel this was terrorism at its utmost," Chwaszczewski said.
Chwaszczewski told police the shooting was "a natural reaction," after having watched the events of Sept. 11.
A woman who identified herself as Sutton's wife said he would have no comment.
Sutton was charged with recklessly operating an aircraft, a misdemeanor, Deputy Police Chief Ken Middlebrook said Friday. If convicted, he could face a month in jail.
Chwaszczewski was charged with interfering with an aircraft, discharging a firearm, an AR-15 rifle, in a public place, reckless handling of a firearm and assaulting Sutton. He faces up to eight years in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted.
©2002 Associated Press
I'm getting it from other names I've heard with similar spelling. Pretty much none of the letters have any phonetic cues (with respect to western phonetics). Having "zews" sound like "efs" isn't really that unusual IMO. Certainly no more than "b" sounding like "v" in Russian, or any number of other phonemes that make a bit of a jump from one language to another.
Try pronouncing "zews" fast, and I think you'll hear an "f" trying to push its way to the fore.
You bet, those are seriously powerful rifles at fantastic prices. The 7.62x54R is *not* a pleasant caliber to shoot in the later carbine versions of the Mosin-Nagant, though. Muzzle flash verges on thermonuclear and recoil is more than substantial (not unlike the .303 Enfield "Jungle Carbine" of the same period). Lighter carry weight comes at a price, unfortunately.
Seriously, I have no way of knowing how he actually pronounces it, since Polish names get mangled so much in America, but the actual Slavic pronunciation is Khwashchevsky (like the "shch" Krushchev).
Yep, I'm about 22 miles ENE of Ft. Pickett. Their flight paths for helos pass very close to my property lines on two sides. The pilots are good about climbing somewhat before passing over the ridge I live on, though, so we seldom get the window rattling effect that the larger birds can produce.
I can sort of feel for the ol' boy too but he still behaved pretty badly. Glad he didn't hit anyone with the rounds he fired. Glad he wasn't usng a Garand or M1A too.
Some clearly are the same.
Some FReepers are the same as the liberals who think such crap as well. They call themselves "the mainstream". Sound familiar, Dave?
I remember the days of the A&N stores having racks of rifles with the foreign stuff like German Mausers going for $12 to $20. Them was the good old days, pre '68 GCA.
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