by me, Kerry Burgess, 10/29/2023
That's me, Kerry Burgess, in the shirt
The way I remember it, that was sometime in early 1985. I was 19 years old. I had been assigned to USS Taylor FFG-50 for several months by then
We made our first port visit to Nassau in the Bahamas and I was sitting there on the balcony of a hotel several of us from deck-department, or Ship's Control Department, rented for a day or two on shore leave liberty.
The USS Taylor FFG-50 was commissioned into active-service on 12/01/1984. I arrived on 12/19/1984. We were still in the shipyards in Bath, Maine, where it has just been constructed as the newest ship in the fleet.
After leaving Maine for Charleston, South Carolina, we made several excursions at sea during my time, notably shakedown at Gitmo, Cuba, and then the extended excursion to Gulf of Mexico to monitor Soviet warship activity there.
The other guy is Andy. I forget now his last name. He was a BM2 in my division and he was often my "buddy" on liberty and I thought of him as a good friend.
Life was different in deck-department than later when I became an FC. For almost my entire tenure as FC3 (promotions are not guaranteed, except for my automatic advancement to paygrade E-3 on day 1 of active-service, the minimum time-in-rate for E-4 is 1 year ; E-5 is 3 years minimum), I was in school. And that experience was similar for me to my experience with working in Deck Department as an undesignated E-3 ; because I was one of the more senior in rate. A BM3 was the sort of credible, authority figure that all FC3's wanted to be. I was probably one of the more senior E-3's and that probably affected my experience. Not to mention that most of my undesignated peers had reported there straight from Apprentice school and were trained better in ship's handling duties than I, with one or more notable exceptions on my part, and they had started off as E-1 on day 1 of their active-service. On 07/16/1984 I went straight from my final day at basic-training to begin enrollment in basic electricity and electronics school (BE/E) and months before being sent from Orlando, Florida, to USS Taylor in disgrace
Disgrace because of my inability to avoid excessive alcohol consumption.
Back then, in many states of the USA, the legal age for alcohol consumption was still 18 years old.
I discovered cheap and easy access to Jack Daniels whiskey at the base club after work and that set me up for failure
I should have known better. During my first 14 years of life, Thedia was married 5 times. Her 4th husband was a wounded combat veteran of US Marine Corps. He was a hopeless drunk. He largely ignored me (they were married when I was in the 6th, 7th, 8th grades. He had no interest in my school-football activities but that was probably because of Thedia's own cowardice) , I never saw him beating her but I did see her face afterwards, supposedly at his hands. So if I did learn anything from him about being a drunk then it was to be fun when drunk.
My academic record for technical training was excellent to that point in the summer of 1984 but I was having trouble staying awake at times. The final blow was I overslept and was absent from class one early morning and I had to see the XO for the second time and then the CO for the first time. They let me keep my paygrade but I was eventually dropped from training and sent to the fleet.
Later I would guess that's why Andy wanted me to go on liberty with him. As enlisted, we could not travel alone while overseas. The so-called "buddy system". I would guess he was there to keep me out of trouble. And that was probably obvious when I arrived at Taylor in 1984 because I would get sort of rowdy when out drinking alcohol with my co-workers after work.
That's all mostly part of the record
Before you can say "Is Caspar really dancing with Phoebe?", there's a speculative part of this that I must again try to explain.
What did all that alcohol consumption do for the larger conspiracy that I suspect?
It created the perfect avenue for having me secretly drugged.
Consistently - and this doesn't mean it's true - and could *in fact* mean just the opposite - I have suspected that Thomas Reagan was covertly drugging me, for some unknown purpose.
He is history's preeminent genius so whatever it was, was well-thought out.
My first guess is has something to do with 07/19/1989.
That's the sort of "metamorphosis" event that I have been trying to prove EACH AND EVERY DAY for most of this time since my excursion to the VA hospital in 2005 and 2006.
My *guess* is the purpose of the medical-drugs was to build up something physically in my brain
There were after-effects
Or perhaps primary-effects
I just don't know.
Other times, I wonder if he saw in myself, at 18 years old, I had already developed a "work-aholic" mentality. Sure, that's great, when you're a Thomas Reagan. But for me, Kerry Burgess, it was simply the effect of my childhood and my attempt to withdraw from life. Not like I was going to really accomplish anything great. I was simply going to work hard at jobs that any above-average intelligence could accomplish.
Recently, thoughts formed in my conscious-mind that "Julie-Jayne" exists only as thoughts, normal thoughts, in my conscious-mind because of what he did. A sort of vaccine against the symptoms, symptoms similar to paranoid-schizophrenia. That's my theory - half-baked - of why he would do something like that to me
My suspicion is that it took many years to accomplish
For one reason, I suspect, is that the medicine wouldn't be detectable in blood or urine samples
Somehow, this covert activity would then support his activity in taking over my life, in 1989, when he began to live my life, and take over as me the US Navy enlisted seafarer.
He stacked the deck by arranging for key people to work around me. They all arrived at the Wainwright before I.
They were the sort easily managed. If they became suspicions of the transition, and questioned the very subtle difference of appearance of Thomas Reagan, my clone progenitor, then they were *managed* into subservience and they kept shut their stupid mouth from speaking about it openly.
None of you UFO-bunkers, you UFO-fanboys, will admit it but "Beam me up, Scotty" is effectively suicide. Any technology that wholly destroys your molecular structure has *literally* killed you.
What comes back is no longer *you*. It's a copy of the original 'you'
And, no, there's no hope for you bible-thumpers. Your ridiculous 'afterlife' was invented by cavemen, and as you are now still, they were imbeciles.
I was still writing this note when I watched The Simpsons 8:00 PM to 8:30 PM 10/29/2023, but my content here was established well before the episode began
Also, earlier today, this morning, I watched for the first time for me, the Apple-tv streaming-video serial "See".
I made it through the first episode and have it paused part way through the second episode. I have still the final two episodes of season 2 of "Invasion" to watch. Might go back and watch season 1 again after finishing season 2.
A few hours ago, earlier this morning, when I paused the video, the antagonist-traitor guy, had just thrown the bottle in the water in episode 2. You have to watch it to know what that means. Finishing the content for this note, shortly before posting it, I found that humorous, only in the sense of *my* choice of where to pause the video, well before I knew how the full content of this note would turn out, completely unaware of a scene that was established years ago before today.
As for "See", is much better than I expected, despite the presence of Jason Momoa, and his earlier performance - in my personal opinion - ruining the 2004 "Stargate: Atlantis"
I wasn't enthusiastic for "See" because I don't like such stories, such as "The Walking Dead", and of how they are so hopelessly unwashed.
"See" is fairly entertaining and I can see myself watching the entire production of episodes. There are 3 seasons listed and I think I read a fourth season is imminent.
I as especially entertained by the Shadow character. Also, one point that seems clever to me is how the settings have such beautiful landscapes. Also causes me to comprehend the notion of 'vision' to people who have never experienced it and it has been absent for so long that it has become a myth, even a superstition.
I think again about a memory I have from year 1989. I was stationed onboard USS Wainwright CG-28. We were deployed overseas to the Mediterranean Sea. One dark night, we were inport in some country on the shores of the Med and I had sentry duty. I was guarding the exterior section of the front of the ship. I'm standing there covering a large expanse of an open area with an M-14 semi-automatic rifle slung over my shoulder. A guy I had never seen before came up from the semi-darkness and started talking to me. I had never seen him before, he's in E-6 dungarees, tells me he's a reservist on his two-week annual-deployment and he's holding a cup of coffee. Seemed to be the type of cup from the chief's mess or even the officer's mess. Our mess used different cups, for whatever liquid is in it, as he approached me to conversational distance.
I'm the M-14 rifle sentry that night for the bow section of the ship and he approaches me in conversation standing there with that cup with liquid in it.
excerpts:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/interviews-with-representatives-orlando-florida-television-stations
The American Presidency Project
RONALD REAGAN
40th President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Interviews With Representatives of Orlando, Florida, Television Stations
July 02, 1984
Legal Drinking Age—
The President. Hello.
Scott Peelin [of WFTV-TV]. Mr. President, you changed your mind on raising the drinking age. Originally you had stood by the premise it was a State decision. Isn't this just another example of more interference by the Federal Government?
The President. Well, now, I'm having a little difficulty with this speaker here. I didn't catch the first part of your question.
Mr. Peelin. Well, from what we understand, sir, according to Transportation Secretary Dole, you changed your mind on raising the Federal drinking age. You originally had stood by the premise that it was a State decision. Isn't this just another example of the Federal Government getting involved in something that you had always said in the past was States rights?
The President. No, I don't think so. It's true that I am a strong advocate of States rights, and I don't like seeing the Federal Government cross the line and intervene, although it has done so once in this particular area with the 55-mile speed limit. That was born of an emergency situation. It is true, also, that I would have preferred if all the States had come together on the drinking age being raised to 21, and without Federal interference.
But when I saw the figures—there are 23 States that have now adopted the 21 age limit. The others are a little behind or, in some instances, have refused to go along with this. But when I saw the figures, I realized that the cause was worth this risk of the Federal Government intervening. In Michigan, 43 percent was the drop in nighttime fatalities after this was passed; in Illinois it was 23 percent. In the first year after New Jersey adopted this, the fatalities among young people dropped by 39 percent in the first year. So, I think it is worth it.
But also there is some element here that could open the door to the Federal Government being involved, and that is the fact of the interstate situation, that States with the advanced drinking age now find that in adjoining States where they still have the age much younger, they cross the line and into the—or the other States, and then are faced with driving back with the result that we have seen.
I had that reversed. I should say the people—or the youngsters in the States where they have the 21 law cross the line into those that don't have it. And these percentage figures—and we're talking human lives of young people—I think warrant the action that we're suggesting. I would prefer that the other 27 States would do what the first 23 have done.
excerpts:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/interviews-with-representatives-orlando-florida-television-stations
The American Presidency Project
RONALD REAGAN
40th President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Interviews With Representatives of Orlando, Florida, Television Stations
July 02, 1984
Space Program
Mr. McDonough. Mr. President, the budget for the Nation's space program, including the Kennedy Space Center here in Florida, has remained more or less the same over the past few years. Do you support an increase in that budget in the future, including a portion of the budget which would affect the space station project?
The President. Well, the budget, when we came here, 1981, was $5 1/2 billion. For 1985 we have asked, and Congress has approved, $7 1/2 billion. That is a 36-percent increase in the budget. And for the 4 years we've been here, the budget has increased more than the inflation rate. So, we're not just covering inflation.
But I believe in the space program, and now, as you know, we're looking forward to, and have asked for, research and study into a space station. And, naturally, the budget will reflect whatever the increased needs are for these worthwhile undertakings.
excerpts:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/interviews-with-representatives-orlando-florida-television-stations
The American Presidency Project
RONALD REAGAN
40th President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Interviews With Representatives of Orlando, Florida, Television Stations
July 02, 1984
Legal Drinking Age
Mr. Rinker. Hello, Mr. President. This is Glenn Rinker [of WCPX-TV] in Orlando.
The President. Well, hello there. Good to talk to you.
Mr. Rinker. Thank you sir. Mr. President, Florida's drinking age is now 19. Do you have a message for our State's young people who argue, if they're old enough to vote, old enough to die for their country, they're old enough to drink?
The President. Well, the trouble is, some of them are dying, but not for their country. They're dying simply because of drinking and driving. And we have the evidence now—with 23 States that have adopted the 21 law, we have the evidence in the figures that show that that law saves lives.
In Michigan, after adopting it, the drop in this kind of fatalities was 43 percent. In Illinois it was 23 percent. In the first year after New Jersey adopted it, it was 39 percent. I think the numbers—the hundreds and even thousands of young people whose lives can be saved warrant us moving to this law.
The other thing is, that we haven't thought about, that at the younger drinking age—it is easier for people who have not yet reached that age to pass themselves off as being old enough to be sold liquor. When you raise the age somewhat it's a little more difficult for the 16- to the 17-year-old to pass themselves off as 21.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act
National Minimum Drinking Age Act
From Wikipedia
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 (23 U.S.C. § 158) was passed by the United States Congress and was later signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984. The act would punish any state that allowed persons under 21 years to purchase alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by 10 percent. The law was later amended, lowering the penalty to 8 percent from fiscal year 2012 and beyond.
Despite its name, this act did not outlaw the consumption of alcoholic beverages by those under 21 years of age, just their purchase or public possession. However, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, extended the law into an outright ban. The minimum purchase and drinking ages is a state law, and most states still permit "underage" consumption of alcohol in some circumstances. In some states, no restriction on private consumption is made, while in other states, consumption is only allowed in specific locations, in the presence of consenting and supervising family members, as in the states of Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New York, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Some states even allow persons under 21 years of age to drink alcohol in public places, such as in Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts and Louisiana as long as the parent or guardian consents to it and is the one that buys the alcohol and is at least 21 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act
National Minimum Drinking Age Act
From Wikipedia
History
During the 1960s, both Congress and the state legislatures came under increasing pressure to lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18. This was in large part due to the Vietnam War, in which many young men who were ineligible to vote (or legally drink) were conscripted to fight in the war, thus lacking any means to influence the people sending them off to risk their lives. "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote," was a common slogan used by proponents of lowering the voting age. The slogan traced its roots to World War II, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the military draft age to 18. With the lowering of the voting age to 18, the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was similarly lowered under the notion that by being able to vote (and for males, be subject to being involuntarily drafted into the enlisted ranks of the military), one should also be able to legally consume alcoholic beverages.
However, these changes were soon followed by studies showing a significant increase in motor vehicle fatalities attributable to the decreased MLDA. In response to these findings, many states raised the minimum legal drinking age to 19 (and sometimes to 20 or 21).[5] In 1984, the National Minimum Legal Drinking Act, written by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and influenced by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), required all states to set their minimum purchasing age to 21. Any state that chooses not to comply with the act would have up to 10 percent of its federal highway funds withheld.
From 6/8/1993 ( commencement, Princeton University Class of 1993 ) To 7/13/2000 ( ) is 2592 days
2592 = 1296 + 1296
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 5/21/1969 ( from the thoughts in my conscious mind, coinciding with United States of America Veterans Affairs hospital psychiatric doctor medical drugs: the Princeton University doctor of medicine degree graduation of my biological brother Dr Thomas Reagan MD and in 1973 the law-doctorate graduate of University of Oxford, England ) is 1296 days
From 7/19/1989 ( the United Airlines Flight 232 crash in Sioux City Iowa and from the thoughts in my conscious mind, coinciding with United States of America Veterans Affairs hospital psychiatric doctor medical drugs: the end of Kerry Burgess - *me* - the natural human being cloned from another human being {Thomas Reagan} ) To 7/13/2000 ( ) is 4012 days
4012 = 2006 + 2006
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 5/1/1971 ( premiere USA film "Billy Jack" ) is 2006 days
From 6/8/1874 ( Cochise dead ) To 2/17/1909 ( Geronimo dead ) is 12672 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 7/13/2000 ( ) is 12672 days
From 12/20/1994 ( from the thoughts in my conscious mind, coinciding with United States of America Veterans Affairs hospital psychiatric doctor medical drugs: in non-aviator related duties boots on the ground in Bosnia as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps captain this day is my US Navy Cross medal date of record ) To 7/13/2000 ( ) is 2032 days
2032 = 1016 + 1016
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/14/1968 ( the Disneyland passenger helicopter crash - Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 ) is 1016 days
From 1/17/1991 ( from the thoughts in my conscious mind, coinciding with United States of America Veterans Affairs hospital psychiatric doctor medical drugs: the date of record of my US Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 officially the United States Apache attack helicopter pilot ) To 7/13/2000 ( ) is 3465 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 4/29/1975 ( the evacuation of Saigon begins ) is 3465 days
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-presenting-the-congressional-gold-medal-father-theodore-m-hesburgh
The American Presidency Project
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
42nd President of the United States: 1993 ‐ 2001
Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Father [Superstition] Theodore M. Hesburgh
July 13, 2000
Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker; Senator Daschle, Senator Thurmond, Senator Bayh, Senator Lugar, Congressman Roemer. Thank you all for your efforts today. Chaplain Coughlin and distinguished Members of the Congress and, of course, Chaplain Ogilvie. I'd like to say a special word of welcome to the Notre Dame Glee Club, who sang the national anthem without benefit of musical background. Most of us need the music to cover up the mistakes we make, and they were wonderful.
album: "Parachutes" (2000)
Coldplay
"Yellow"
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called "Yellow"
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-20/news/mn-5139_1_crash-landing
Los Angeles Times
Jet Carrying 293 Crashes, Burns in Iowa; 166 Survive
July 20, 1989 J. MICHAEL KENNEDY and BOB BAKER Times Staff Writers
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — A crippled United Airlines DC-10 crashed a half-mile short of a runway while trying to make an emergency landing Wednesday afternoon
One hundred ambulances, fire trucks and helicopters from as far away as South Dakota plucked out the victims. The search for bodies was difficult because some of them were scattered in the cornfield. Many of the survivors were listed in critical condition with burns or broken bones.
United Airlines declined to comment on the number of survivors or to release the names of the 282 passengers and 11 crew members.
from my private journal, as me, Kerry Burgess, typed after being released from the USA Veterans Affairs psychiatric hospital enduring many months sitting in a grungy two-computer room in a homeless shelter on the waterfront in downtown Seattle:
From: Kerry Burgess {me}
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 11:04 AM
To: Kerry Burgess {me}
Subject: Re: Journal May 21, 2006
Kerry Burgess wrote:
I think it was my first thought after waking up this morning that I used to date Julia Roberts a long time ago.
I also have these unexplained thoughts that I was a fighter pilot in the U.S. military, although I'm not sure which service, but I may have been in two different branches over time. I am also confused about thoughts that I may have been a helicopter pilot. What's next? A space shuttle pilot? Seems like a lot for someone that is only 40. And, while I am not sure when this divergence happened, I am reasonably certain it was before I turned 33. So I must have been a pretty busy guy. Especially because I have thoughts that I was some kind of mathmetician too. I have these thoughts too that I was captured by enemy forces at some point and tortured while in captivity.
by me, Kerry Burgess, excerpts from my private journal: 9/26/2006 3:06 PM
As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I had a thought that I have a doctorate in computer science from Princeton.
and I had thoughts that I studied music as well at Princeton.
from my private journal, as me, Kerry Burgess, typed after being released from the USA Veterans Affairs psychiatric hospital enduring many months sitting in a grungy two-computer room in a homeless shelter on the waterfront in downtown Seattle:
by me, Kerry Burgess, excerpts from my private journals: 9/28/2006 7:13 PM
This sounds very interesting. In my memory of taking Physics my Senior year at Ashdown, I remember being very interested in the class, but we didn’t cover such an interesting topic.
http://www.princeton.edu/main/about/present/
Ayan Chatterjee (left) and Mark Daly measure piano strings as part of a lab project for professor Pierre Piroué's freshman seminar on "Sound, Music and ... Physics."
9/28/2006 7:37 PM
I think I even have memories of the graduate degree process. I am not sure of the terms to describe the process.
9/28/2006 7:47 PM
I actually do remember... something... I can’t explain it. It feels that I am holding an unmarked, undistinguishable book that I don’t know the name of or the contents but I know I have read it already.
9/28/2006 8:34 PM
A few minutes ago I started thinking that maybe I started at Princeton University in 1972. I would have been 13 at the time as Thomas Ray. I remember that Kerry Burgess started first grade in 1972. But then I decided that I probably started Princeton earlier than 1972 and maybe 1972 was the year I completed my first major degree. Or 1972 doesn’t really mean anything in particular to Thomas Ray; rather it is there for continuity sake for the life of Kerry Burgess.
by me, Kerry Burgess, posted by me: H.V.O.M at 3:06 AM Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Salesman
Also, "Salesman." I saw that in a dream while sleeping recently. I saw myself going through an induction process in the United States Marine Corps and I woke up understanding that I was dreaming of my actual experience in 1990. I saw a document that indicated I was being inducted to the United States Marine Corps with the officer grade of Chief Warrant Officer 2. I saw in the dream another document associated with my induction and that document indicated I had been assigned the informal name "Salesman."
From 1/17/1991 ( from the thoughts in my conscious mind, coinciding with United States of America Veterans Affairs hospital psychiatric doctor medical drugs: the date of record of my US Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 officially the United States Apache attack helicopter pilot ) To 11/1/2019 ( ) is 10515 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/17/1994 ( "Debt of Honor" by Tom Clancy ) is 10515 days
From 12/20/1994 ( from the thoughts in my conscious mind, coinciding with United States of America Veterans Affairs hospital psychiatric doctor medical drugs: in non-aviator related duties boots on the ground in Bosnia as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps captain this day is my US Navy Cross medal date of record ) To 11/1/2019 ( ) is 9082 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 9/14/1990 ( premiere USA film "Postcards from the Edge" ) is 9082 days
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8078034/
IMDb
See
S1.E1
Godflame
Episode aired Nov 1, 2019
Far in a dystopian future, the human race has lost the sense of sight, and society has had to find new ways to interact, build, hunt, and to survive. All of that is challenged when a set of twins are born with sight.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Flying+the+first+mission+of+dessert+storm.-a0286971012
THE FREE LIBRARY
The Free Library > Science and Technology > Military and naval science > Air Power History > March 22, 2012
Suddenly, the lights began to go off. One of the pilots mused, "I think they know we are here." Thirty seconds prior, the Apache crews turned on their ranging lasers.
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1991/October%201991/1091apache.aspx
Air Force Magazine
October 1991
Apache Attack
By Richard Mackenzie
The helicopters would open the war. They had to take out Iraq's early warning net, and they had to get it all.
At ten seconds before 2:38 in a moonless sky over Iraq, eight US AH-64 Apache helicopters zeroed in on their targets. On their forward-looking infrared screens appeared the images of two Iraqi radar sites just north of Saudi Arabia, placed there to detect intruding fighters. They were linked to four Iraqi fighter bases and to the Intelligence Operations Center in Baghdad.
The unseen Apaches hovered low, four miles south of the radars. At the controls of Number 976, 1st Lt. Tom Drew broke radio silence. "Party in ten," he said. On cue, ten seconds later, the helicopters unleashed a salvo of laser-guided Hellfire missiles. "This one's for you, Saddam ," muttered CW03 Dave Jones, the pilot of another Apache.
The shots, fired in the predawn hours of January 17, 1991, marked the start of Operation Desert Storm and were among the most critical of the war, blinding Iraq's early warning net at a key moment. US Central Command relied entirely on the Apaches and USAF special operations helicopters to do the job. "If something had happened and we didn't do 100 percent [destruction]," said one gunner, CW04 Lou Hall, "a lot of people were going to get hurt."
The Apaches did achieve 100 percent destruction, or close to it. Eyewitnesses report that, when the Hellfires hit the targets, the radar bases evaporated in clouds of smoke and flame. In the four and a half minutes it took to complete the task, the Apaches had, in the words of Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, "plucked out the eyes" of Iraq's Soviet-supplied air defenses.
Previous references by me
"Debt of Honor"
"A Jack Ryan Novel"
Tom Clancy
BERKLEY paperback 1994
Page 971
Captain Sato remained in his command seat. One problem with international air travel was the sameness of it all. This terminal could have been almost anywhere, except that all of the faces were gaijin. There would be a day-long layover before he flew back, doubtless full again of Japanese executives running away.
And this was the remainder of his life, ferrying people he didn't know to places he didn't care about. If only he'd stayed in the Self-Defense Forces - maybe he would have done better, maybe it would have made a difference. He was the best pilot in one of the world's best airlines, and those skills might have ... but he'd never know, would he, and he'd never make a difference, just one more captain of one more aircraft, flying people to and from a nation that had forfeited its honor.
Debt Of Honor (1994) Tom Clancy
(from internet transcript)
excerpt, Chapter 47.
Brooms
"Vancouver tower, this is JAL ferry flight five-zero-zero, requesting clearance to taxi."
"Five-Zero-Zero Heavy, roger, you are cleared to taxi runway Two-Seven-Left. Winds are two-eight-zero at fifteen."
"Thank you, Vancouver, Five-Zero-Zero Heavy cleared for Two-Seven Left." With that the aircraft started rolling. It took ten minutes to reach the end of the departure runway. Sato had to wait an extra minute because the aircraft ahead of his was another 747, and they generated dangerous wake turbulence. He was about to violate the first rule of flight, the one about keeping your number of takeoffs equal to that for landings, but it was something his countrymen had done before. On clearance from the tower, Sato advanced the throttles to the takeoff power, and the Boeing, empty of everything but fuel, accelerated rapidly down the runway, rotating off before reaching six thousand feet, and immediately turning north to clear the controlled air space around the airport. The lightly loaded airliner positively rocketed to its cruising altitude of thirty-nine thousand feet, at which point fuel efficiency was optimum. His flight plan would take him along the Canadian-U.S. border, departing land just north of the fishing town of Hopedale. Soon after that, he'd be beyond ground-based radar coverage. Four hours, Sato thought, sipping tea while the autopilot flew the aircraft. He said a prayer for the man in the right seat, hoping that the copilot's soul would be at peace, as his now was.
- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 11:47 PM Pacific-time USA Sunday 10/29/2023
