From: DMiskell@envirolink.org (Daniel Christopher Miskell)
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 03:31:50 +0800
To: Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
Subject: Re: All Bets Off
Message-ID: <v01540b01ae66edeb0b62@[150.160.45.138]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>On Tue, 17 Sep 1996, Jeff Davis wrote:
>
>> > Just so this isn't hanging in cyberspace forever, my $5,000 bet for
>> > anyone to prove the TWA 800 flight was downed by a U.S. missile is now
>> > *off the table*.
>>
>> I heard through  the family grapevine that they have pictures of a Stinger
>> taking out the plane they're analyzing in the Pentagon.  There are 220+
>> Stingers *missing* in the US, so its not like they have to smuggle them
>> in...  (That's not proof by any means, but *my* family grapevine has always
>> been very reliable.  The cousin who told me this has a Dad who flew as
>> the intelligence officer observer on Bronco flights out of Quang Tri for
>> 18 months, rotating out just before the base was over run in May of '72.)
>
>Does this cousin also have an aunt who lived next door to Joe Montana's
>babysitter? I might know his father ...
>
>Ask your family grapevine about the stinger's op altitude, and the
>altitute of the TWA when it broke up - I don't have Jane's lying around,
>but it seems that the TWA plane was a tad bit high for a stinger.
>
>- r.w.

I recall that Tom Clancy, who has written a number of military fiction novels,
for which he has done endless notebooks full of research for, made a statement
about this.  He said, simply, that the TWA jet's explosion was at such an
altitude, that even if someone did it from a boat directly under, it was still
far too high for a Stinger missile to reach, much less dammage.  Just thought
I would throw that out there.

Tom Clancy is not a military-hired brain, but to make his novels realistic and
to do justice to the people he portrays, he does a LOT of research.  He is a
highly respected author, and I have no doubt that his statement is based on
his personal findings, collected for a previous novel.

--
If in fact we are the only intelligent life on this planet, why the fuck are
we in this goddamn mess?
--
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