WILLIAM. A. TOBIN On June 27, 1971, Mr. William A. Tobin was appointed a Special Agent for the FBI. Before joining the Bureau, Mr. Tobin served three years in the Marine Corps - two in active combat duty in the Republic of South Vietnam. While in the Marines he received the Bronze Star with Combat "V," two crosses of Gallantry and twenty additional military combat decorations. After joining the FBI he worked organized crime and police corruption in Chicago, and general crimes in Detroit. In September, 1974 Mr. Tobin was assigned as a forensic metallurgist in the FBI crime laboratory in Washington, D.C. In 1976 he was promoted to a Supervisory Special Agent and in 1986 became the civilian equivalent of the FBI's Chief Forensic Metallurgist.
Asmodeus...
Exactly WHAT scientific education and degree(s) does Mr. Tobin bring to the table?
I saw a streak of light in the sky. I have no idea what it was. And my reaction when I saw it was, what the hell is that?
Acehai: Here's Meyer's reply to my e-mail:
"TYPO = I saw a streak of light in the sky. I HAD no idea what it was. And my reaction when I saw it was, what the hell is that?"
World of difference, folks... He had no way of knowing what it was at the time. It looked like a streak of light, and that's what he reported.
Swordmaker: Asmodeus, there is a very simple explanation, these flyers were trying to assess (diagnose) a peculiar event, an event beyond their experience in the area they were flying.
In medicine, an old saying is applicable: "When you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras."
In this instance, they saw a streak of light, followed by an bright flash explosion. Their experience, in this flight area, is that it is filled with airplanes (horses) and that it would not be unreasonable to assume, initially, that what they had seen was a mid-air collision of two airplanes. They DID NOT expect to see a missile (a zebra) flying before their eyes. The first inclination is to fit observed data into expected norms. It is only upon reflection that a rarer diagnosis can be made... that the hoofbeats were from zebras and not horses... when the observations DO NOT FIT the expected normal scenario. In this instance, the streak of light followed by the bright flash of an ordnance explosion DID NOT FIT the mid-air collision scenario expected. To make that conclusion one must shift time and place and situation. Flying on a warm evening off of Long Island, one DOES NOT EXPECT TO SEE an AA missile! One's mind must shift gears and paradigms to realize what actually was seen.
The readers will note that both Acehai and Swordmaker studiously ignored the fact that witness Meyer made that statement SIX MONTHS after the Flight 800 disaster. Source. By that goofy tinfoil hat "logic", investigators can't determine what witnesses actually saw until the witneses have come to an informed conclusion about what they saw. In fact, expert investigators of such matters routinely make every effort to interview witnesses at the earliest possible moment to minimize the amount of tainting - input from other sources - the witnesses are subjected to. It was tainting that eventually led to witness Meyer's conclusions over six months after he made his observations.
In addition to that whacky performance, Swordmaker has also joined the sleazy efforts of Acehai and that legend in his own mind, John Fiorentino, to try to discredit FBI whistleblower Tobin. Let's take a look at Tobin's background followed by the pathetic response of Swordmaker:
On June 27, 1971, Mr. William A. Tobin was appointed a Special Agent for the FBI. Before joining the Bureau, Mr. Tobin served three years in the Marine Corps - two in active combat duty in the Republic of South Vietnam. While in the Marines he received the Bronze Star with Combat "V," two crosses of Gallantry and twenty additional military combat decorations. After joining the FBI he worked organized crime and police corruption in Chicago, and general crimes in Detroit. In September, 1974 Mr. Tobin was assigned as a forensic metallurgist in the FBI crime laboratory in Washington, D.C. In 1976 he was promoted to a Supervisory Special Agent and in 1986 became the civilian equivalent of the FBI's Chief Forensic Metallurgist.
In this position, Mr. Tobin was the leading expert, nationwide, in the law enforcement community on forensic metallurgy (i.e. the examination and analysis of material's deformation and damage).
In this position, Mr. Tobin was qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the FBI or the U.S. government in over 200 local, state and federal courts. He served as the FBI's leading forensic metallurgist on thousands of cases, such as the UNABOM, Judge Robert S. Vance mail bomb murder case and numerous accident/disaster cases (i.e. the Escambron Beach Puerto Rico Oil Spill, the Willow Island West Virginia Scaffold Collapse, the Wilberg Coal Mine Disaster in Utah, the Panama City Florida Train Derailment, the USS Iowa explosion and the Mobile, Alabama Train Derailment).
In his 24 years in the crime lab Mr. Tobin provided forensic analyses in approximately 75-100 aircraft incidents (i.e, ranging from mechanical failures to suspected sabotage to actual crash damage examinations).
In regard to the July 17, 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, Mr. Tobin arrived in New York at the crash reconstruction site on August 4, . He devoted his efforts as the FBI's chief metallurgist at the crash reconstruction site for 89 straight days, and as necessary thereafter.
The science of metallurgy is the only scientifically appropriate discipline to evaluate metal damage and causes of the metal damage of the recovered parts of Flight 800. Mr. Tobin was the most scientifically qualified and experienced metallurgist involved in the evaluation of the crash damaged materials in the law enforcement community.
Swordmaker: "Asmodeus, Exactly WHAT scientific education and degree(s) does Mr. Tobin bring to the table?"
Swordmaker, a genius in all things in his own mind and a carbon copy of the classic tinfoil hat, Ian Goddard, is going to have to do his own research in his continuing efforts to impress [lifting a partial quote from Rokke] "the National Enquirer set in this country with his fantasies".