Author: Dan Anderson (---.west.biz.rr.com)
Date: 08-10-08 12:48
Here's some Cunningham fan mail I received today. I guess if you're a self-proclaimed war hero, you are supposed to get a "free pass" to commit any number of crimes you want, for life :-).
Lets see how our "hero" is doing in prison:
http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=94405-198&x=397&y=296
- Dan
Sender: Andrew
IP Address: 65.217.149.43 (National Medical Health Card Systems, Inc, Port Washington, NY)
You forgot to mention that Duke Cunningham has FIVE confirmed kills over North Vietnam. And, while it is true that the legendary Colonel Tomb was mostly a myth, the reality of the situation is that Colonel Tomb was an amalgamation of several different pilots in the NVAF, some of whom were selected to attened advanced air combat training in the fUSSR. While no single pilot can claim to be the legendary Col Tomb, there certainly were a few pilots in the NVAF who fit the mold.
You claim, in a rather childish way, that Cunningham's war "hero" status is fiction. It is not. He shot down five NVAF MiGs in the war, making him an Ace - the first Navy Ace of the missile age, to boot. In his final mission over North Vietnam, Duke shot down three MiGs in a single engagement - how many MiGs have you shot down in combat? None? Oh, okay. So you obviously have no way of judging whether he is a war "hero" or not. You have no idea how much skill and patience it takes to successfully shoot down a MiG-17 with an F-4 Phantom (the type of plane flown by Duke). In fact, I doubt you could even pick an F-4 out of a lineup on the taxiway. Other pilots who served with him consider his actions pretty heroic, and by diminishing his status, you also diminish the acheivement of his RIO. Know what a RIO is, hotshot? Oh, I forgot you're just an internet snark-artist, taking jabs at people with your crude excuse for satire. A RIO is a Radar-Intercept Officer - also called the GIB, or Guy-In-Back. He sits behind the pilot in an F-4 Phantom and operates the radar system in the event of a long-range air-to-air engagement. "A'ha!", you might think - so Cunningham didn't shoot down those planes; it was all his RIO's work! Not a chance. Those five kills were all made using short-range, heat-seeking missiles called Sidewinders - NOT the longer range radar-guided Sparrow missiles fired by the RIO. However, the RIO plays an important role in looking around for danger while the pilot is engaged, and monitoring aircraft systems while the pilot tries to stay behind his target and achieve missile lock. Lt. William "Irish" Driscoll was the RIO in Duke's plane, present for all five of his kills. By not telling your readers (and judging by the 85 votes you have on that poll on your homepage, there ain't many) the truth about Duke's accomplishments, you also slander his RIO. Of course, nobody knows who "Irish" Driscoll is, least of all you, so it doesn't!
matter to the likes of you and your readers. But it matters to some of us.
What are you afraid of? Are you worried that mentioning the great things he accomplished in Vietnam might dilute your blatant character assasination? Well, you're probably right about that. While the other information on your page seems factual, you lend yourself no credibility when you leave out important and factual information on Duke's service to our country. Nevermind that he was deployed to the war as it was about to end - pilots have no control over when they go fight, they just get sent over there when their number comes up. On balance, even considering all of his flaws, Duke has done more service to his country than you could accomplish in a dozen lifetimes. Each MiG kill was a huge morale boost, and each successful mission was a reminder to his fellow pilots that they were not fighting alone. As for the "Breaking into the dean's office" scandal you mentioned, quite frankly, if fighter pilots didn't engage in hijinx from time to time in training, they probably wouldn't have the temerity to be fighter pilots. Nobody got hurt, and his purpose was for information, not to alter records or diminish someone else's status in training.
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![[Randy Cunningham Photo]](/images/cunningham.jpg)