JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 08/01/10
I never mentioned this before, because I was feeling compelled not to, but now after reading this, I wanted to note that she was the woman I was imagining that was going to drive me around to collect the numbers from the bombs and then fly me to Tiger, WA, where I would record the numbers at the crossroads.
(born April 24, 1980)
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 08/1/10 2:16 AM
I have wondered many, many times why I was imagining that specific woman and the specific person who was going to drive me around to the location of the three nuclear MIRV bombs that were suspended in the air just before detonating over the Seattle downtown area and the two other areas. Why her?
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 1 August 2010 excerpt ends]
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 08/01/10 2:31 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haboob
Haboob
A haboob is a type of intense sandstorm commonly observed in arid regions throughout the world. They have been observed in the Sahara desert (typically Sudan), as well as across the Arabian Peninsula, throughout Kuwait, and in the most arid regions of Iraq. African haboobs result from the northward summer shift of the inter-tropical front into North Africa, bringing moisture from the Gulf of Guinea. Haboob winds in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Kuwait are frequently created by the collapse of a thunderstorm.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 1 August 2010 excerpt ends]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw
Operation Eagle Claw
Operation Eagle Claw (or Operation Evening Light or Operation Rice Bowl) was a United States military operation that attempted to rescue 52 Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran on 24 April 1980, ordered by President Jimmy Carter.
Disaster and debacle
Fuel consumption calculations showed that the extra 90 minutes idling on the ground had made fuel critical for one of the EC-130s. When it became clear that only six helicopters would arrive at Desert One, Kyle had authorized the EC-130s to transfer 1,000 U.S. gallons from the bladders to their own main fuel tanks, but Republic 4 had already expended all of its bladder fuel refueling three of the helicopters and had none to transfer. To make it to the tanker refueling track without running out of fuel, it had to leave immediately, and was already loaded with part of the Delta force. In addition, RH-53 Bluebeard 4 needed additional fuel, requiring it be moved to the opposite side of the road.
To accomplish both actions, Sea Stallion Bluebeard 3 had to be moved from directly behind the EC-130. The helicopter could not be moved by ground taxi, and had to be moved by "air taxi" (flying a short distance at low speed and altitude). An Air Force CCT marshaller attempted to direct the maneuver from in front of the helicopter, but was sandblasted by the rotor's churning up the desert sand. As the marshaller attempted to back away from the source of the sandblast, the pilot of Bluebeard 3 perceived he was drifting backward (engulfed in a dust cloud the pilot only had the CCT marshaller as a point of reference) and thus attempted to "correct" this situation by applying forward stick in order to maintain the same distance from the rearward moving marshaller. The RH-53 struck the vertical stabilizer of the EC-130 with its main rotor and crashed into the wing root of the EC-130.
In the ensuing explosion and fire, eight US servicemen died: five USAF aircrew in the C-130, and three USMC aircrew on the RH-53, with only the helicopter pilot and co-pilot (both badly burned) surviving. During the following frantic evacuation of the scene by the C-130s, the helicopter crews attempted to retrieve their classified mission documents and destroy the helicopters, but Col. Beckwith ordered the helicopter crews to get on the C-130s or be left behind. The helicopter crews climbed into the C-130s for departure, five RH-53 helicopters were left behind mostly intact, some damaged by shrapnel. Iranian gains from the failed operation total between four and five RH-53 helicopters.
The C-130s carried the remaining forces back to the intermediate airfield at Masirah Island where two C-141 medical evacuation aircraft from the Night Two staging base at Wadi Abu Shihat, Egypt (referred to as Wadi Kena by the US Forces due to its location near Qena) picked up the injured personnel, helicopter crews, Rangers and Delta Force members and returned to Wadi Kena. The injured personnel were then transported to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The Tehran CIA team left Iran, unaware that their presence had been compromised.
