We never heard about Melissa Valles..

[SoCalDem]

Sgt. Melissa Valles , 26
64th Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
Eagle Pass, Texas
Died of a non-combat gunshot wound on July 9, 2003, in Balad, Iraq

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/page6.html

[Wonk]

1. "non-combat gunshot wound"? That's a different spin....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID43/5896.html

[SoCalDem]

2. Yessir.. a mortal gunshot wound in a COMBAT ZONE, but......

it's not combat related..:(

I know they cannot report every single one, but when you read the info at that site, it gets very curious, indeed..

and after hearing the "tall tales" that the parents/wives/families are told by the govt..and then they later find out from the ones who were there...that it was entirely different..it makes me wonder even more..

[Devils Advocate NZ]

3. Wait a minute!

I know about the aircraft that was shot down by a Patriot missile:

Flight Lt. David Rhys Williams 37 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force Crickhowell, Powys, England Killed when his aircraft was downed by a U.S. Patriot missile near the Kuwaiti border on March 23, 2003.

But what is this???:

Lt. Nathan D. White 30 Strike Fighter Squadron 195, Carrier Air Wing 5, USS Kitty Hawk Mesa, Arizona Killed in action April 2, 2003, flying over Iraq

I didn't know any US aircraft had been shot down over Iraq. Does anyone have any more details of this incident?

On edit: Huh? Here are some more:

Maj. William R. Watkins III 37 333rd Fighter Squadron Danville, Virginia Killed in action April 7, 2003, during a combat mission

Capt. Eric B. Das 30 333rd Fighter Squadron Amarillo, Texas Killed in action April 7, 2003, during a combat mission

It appears that these two men were in the same aircraft, an F-15E, but what strikes me as interesting is that the 333rd is listed as a training squadron at Global Security. What was a training squadron doing in combat over Iraq?

[SoCalDem]

4. it was probably one of those "training accidents"

:eyes:

[charlie]

5. Poor guy KNEW he was in danger

of getting vaporized by a Patriot:

In his last e-mail message home before he died, 30-year-old Navy pilot Lt. Nathan White described the challenges his F/A-18C would face over Iraq. One of his top concerns was avoiding American Patriot air defense missiles.

...

Then he would navigate the system of "airborne highways" created by the military to keep planes from crashing into each other "and of course steer you clear of the army's Patriot batteries," White wrote.

It was not a joking reference. White's was the second plane shot down by a 17-foot-long, 2,000-pound Patriot missile. His was the third coalition plane targeted by the system within a 10-day span.

...

It was a direct hit, apparently slamming directly into White's cockpit. The impact most likely caused White's plane to eject him. His intact parachute was found floating in Lake Karbala. The Navy believed for 10 days White had ejected over Karbala where an intense ground battle was raging and was either hiding or a prisoner.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030424-042117-6399r

[charlie]

6. Mentioned in passing in the article

was that the day after a Patriot killed a Tornado and crew, an American F-16 pilot may have saved his own ass by firing upon and disabling a Patriot system that had targeted him.

[Wonk]

9. re: Patriot missiles and friendly fire

The can`t-miss missile, 134 M quicktime a documentary on the history and use of the Patriot missile system, including software glitches and what does and doesn't count as a "succesful" use.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

7. I editted my post, but you may not have noticed it so...

I just thought I would point it out.

Ok, so White's aircraft was supposedly downed by a Patriot, but what about the other two pilots from the 333rd that I added on edit?

Any links to what happened to them?

As far as I was able to determine they were from a training squadron, that appears to have been deployed for the war. But how did they get shot down?

I remember that there were at least two occasions that the Iraqis claimed to have shot down US aircraft, and that CentCom had denied this, I believe by saying that they had no aircraft missing. Of course the aircraft wouldn't be missing if it had been shot down and seen to crash. They would know exactly where it was, so it wouldn't be "missing" would it.

And now I find two sets of deaths listed during that time period of pilots flying in combat over Iraq. Perhaps the Iraqis weren't lying after all?

[SoCalDem]

8. Devil's Advocate.... Are you saying that you doubt the veracity

of CentCom?? How DARE you.... They would never lie to us..:eyes:..

The really sad thing about this whole issue, is that one by one, parents, wives,etc WILL be getting the truth, BUT unless they are media savvy and angry as hell, "we" will never know about it.. And IF the story makes it onto the 6 o'clock news in the largest city near to the family AND picked up by AP on a slow news day....you get the drift..


The fact that dead soldiers returning in flag draped coffins is no longer an outrage is further proof, that the admin has wriggled free once again :(