On 11/11/04 7:38 AM, in article , "Tom
Cooper" wrote:

SNIP
You state that the Iraqi pilot and the Iranian ace had a fight that
occurred
"in full view" of Navy surface ships. What does that mean? Were USN
crews
witnesses to the fight? If so, why did the Iraqi pilot spend so many days
in his raft?

Yep; the USN witnessed the fight. Unclear is only if they actually saw it or
tracked it on their radars. AFAIK, they did not notice ejection. Two days
later the pilot was found deeper inside the Hormuz Straits by other group of
USN vessels.


I can nearly guarantee that nobody "eye-witnessed" it. The altitude and
ranges that these things occur at--especially in the daytime--make them
difficult to keep track of visually.

SNIP
From what I've learned so far on this and the previous two days there was a
small SAG centered around USS Guam (LPH-9) in the area between Khark Island
and Bahrain. What I'm sure of is that crews of these ships have withnessed
the Iraqi three-wave strike against Khark, flown in the early morning,
morning and afternoon of 18 March 1988, then after the success of the first
Iraqi strike specific skipper of one of USN warships declared the Iraqi
attack for, "deplorable by nature", and subsequently the whole SAG turned
around. When the next Iraqi wave (flown around 09:00hr AM local time)
appeared the IRIAF interceptors were airborne and the USN warships
recorded - I don't know yet by which means (if I would know this I would not
need any documents from ONI) - firings of five AIM-54s.


You're assuming. Based on the SPEAR message, SOME Navy/intel platform
detected those firings. We don't know how or from what.

--Woody