European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 9, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 Tihe stars and stripes anger compassion follow fatal flight 103 9 _ T _ a a a we All lost at some 30,000 plus feet of Altitude Over the Small scottish town of Lockerbie 259people died when pan Kiln flight 103 Tore apart. At least 11 More perished when the shattered aircraft crashed into the town. J thirty eight of those who died were students from Syracuse University returning Home for the holidays after spending the fall semester studying abroad. Fifteen of the victims were Crew members jus Normal working people on the Job. One of the victims was. Brent Carlson the unite nations commissioner to Namibia. There was an estimate made on television that about 70 percent of the passenger list of flight 103 consisted of american service members and their families heading Home for the holidays. Any tragedy of this magnitude is horrible but it is always worse when you knew or were close to any of the victims. There May be some americans who Don t really appreciate How close a Community the american Mili tary is. For those people let us compare military serv ice to living your entire life in a City of half a million people. It does t take Bing before you know or reacquainted with Many others who live there. As a con sequence of this Small town atmosphere when there s a major disaster like what happened to flight 103 you re almost certain a to know at least one of the victims. If you Don t i now one yourself you surely know someone who does in Short when one of us Dies it hurts us All. In these angry times it does t take a Genius to recognize that our Constitution indeed our very Way of life has enemies. They have taken us hostage handheld us for years at a time. They be driven trucks filled with explosives into our Barracks. They have shot us Down with air to air missiles when they could clearly see we were helpless. They be blown us up in dance Halls. We have been hijacked brutally beaten and the shot in the head at close Range because we would t cry for mercy. Incredibly Ohe of us in a wheelchair was beaten and thrown Over the Side of a cruise ship Sim ply because he was an Arie rican. They routinely mine International Waters and sen gun boats to machine gup and fire missiles at unarmed vessels As a Normal instrument of their extremist foreign policy. Then they Send a civilian aircraft into a War zone Only to put us on trial in the court of world opinion when we shoot it Down because we thought it was a War plane. Certainly that event was tragic and we Al wish that the missiles had never been fired. But shoot ing it Down however tragic and horrible it May have been was not an act of cowardice. Nor was it a Case of deliberate and cold blooded murder. It was an act of War undertaken by men who were actively engaged in the business of waging War in defense of a political policy and their own Liv s. But now the enemy in an incredible and unprecedented act of cowardice has blown us out of the sky. Total of 259 men women and children gone in the twinkling of an Eye Asi retribution for their own failed foreign policy. All of this is done according to their own words in the name of their god and against the evil of the great How Long Are we going to accept this kind of treat ment How Many of us Are going to have to die before we realize As a nation that we have an Active enemy who declared War on up years ago Don t we need to draw the line somewhere when do we take care of our own i if i had to die speaking for myself As a Soldier i would much rather do my dying in uniform fighting the enemy than flying Home on leave for Christmas two weeks ago i spent an evening at a table wit Douglas Malicote and Lis wife Wendy. Wendy and i were the designated Drivers for a Small group of revellers who travelled from Coleman Barracks in Sand Hofen Over to Heidelberg to hear a Rock band and Wendy were Fine people. They took care of their own. To spec. Doug Nasmith All three assign Cote Wendy and sgt. May a to Headquarters and head quarters company of the 97th signal battalion and to All passengers of Flig Speed. You will be miss it does t matter if de. You knew them personally or not they were your friends. After All they were Ameri cans and we always Tak spec. Charles s. Mead James r. Strasel sat Wilfred William me. Jacob s. Jackson spec. Gary Burt Aach spec. Steven c. Arellanos spec. Herbert c. Smith spec. Mark h. Fenner spec. Anthony w. Allen spec. Kyung i Kim spec. David l. Bryant sgt Vincent i. Nobles Start sgt Mohammad a. Cha Ihry 103 we say Farewell and god care of our own. Don t we sgt Stephen r. Wisecup Start sgt Kenneth r. Glass sgt Joseph i. Wolfe spec. Timothy f. Bond sgt Russell c. Johnson or. Spec. Chris Mcniel spec. Marius r. Robinson spec. Frank Valentino spec. Eugene Murphy spec. Brett . Jeffrey e. Soukup spec. John e. Manser spec. Phillip h. Brauney sgt Marc a. Noemi another terrorist incident. Another terrorist Inci Dent committed without retribution hopefully not. Terrorism is defined As a state of terror an organized system of intimidation. We Are allowing ourselves to be intimidated by a group of fanatics and lunatics. Around me i heard people cancelling their Christmas and new year s plans. They Are afraid to go Home an see their loved ones. They Are being intimidated by terrorists. We bombed Libya Over the death of two american sat the Labelle disco in Berlin. Now we have a plane that crashes killing 259 people almost All of the american or British. What will the president do about this the identity of the perpetrators needs to be found a expeditiously As possible. They must pay the Price for the death of innocent people. Retaliation is a must but it cannot be done As indiscriminately As these fanatics. We cannot sink to their level of killing and maiming innocent men women and children. If they have the knowledge that their Brothers in arms or their loved ones were killed i retaliation of a terrorist act they committed they might have second thoughts about continuing this madness. We cannot allow terrorists to dictate How we will live our lives. Sgt. Alan b. Vestal Kirch-g5ns, West Germany reference the article widow angered by failure to warn i never cease to be amazed when . Citizens turn anger and blame 180 degrees from the source. Where Isth anger toward those who plan and carry out such acts. I too feel sorrow and loss. Loss for the Man families who suffer from such senseless acts and Sor Row that we live in a world where such acts Are All to common. However i will never condemn those who must make decisions to the Best of their ability. Yes sometimes those decisions May seem wrong but Only after the fact. How Many times were their decisions right they Are the Unsung heros for they Bear the responsibility for those decisions. I will continue to make my presence known for what i represent and stand for. If i die As the result of a senseless act i Pray that my family and friends will know and remember i lived for a reason and a belief that the cause can be changed. Sgt. 1st class . Engleman Stuttgart West Germany is asst. Or. President. Gotta helluva Bridgefor Sale. Well it happened again. As i sit and Type this letter an is broadcasting to the world the Circum stances surrounding the crash of pan am flight 103. We All knew it was coming of course. Just a matter of time before something happens again. And Why did it happen again Why of course in retaliation for the iranian jetliner shot Down by our . Navy. Don t get me wrong the Navy just does t sail around the world shooting Down civilian airliners. I know that we All know that. We be become too de pendent on our machines that supposedly work won Ders in the name of defense of Freedom and democracy but Don t work. Those people on the iranian jumbo Jet would still be living our colleagues family friends and fellow countrymen on flight 103 would be in the Comfort of their own Homes by now in therms of their mothers fathers Brothers and Sisters if those wonder machines did what they were de signed to do. But the All powerful defense corporations those Miracle workers pressed on despite the fact their secret weapon project was lagging behind schedule and Over budget. And the terrorists got Back at us . Senator. Gotta helluva Bridge for they pressed on stretching the truth falsifying test data even lied about their wonder weapon. This radar system is nearly foolproof accurate and easy to operate they said. Of they said please Don t min the fact that it Cost More than you bargained for and that it s just a Twensey Weensy bit late and it does Twork exactly the Way you want it to but Don t worry Well get the bugs out later. Don t worry Trust us yes or. Representative you bought it. You took it Hook line and sinker. Hey or. Senator guess what it did t work again it told one of our sailors a fighter Jet was making an attack run but it turned out to be an Airbus. And they got Back at us again. Is asst. Or. Representative. Gotta helluva Bridge for Sale let s not forget about the icbms guidance system made from radio Shack parts. And the Bradley fighting vehicle you know the one that floats with state of the Art Armor. Well it does t float and the Armor melts like butter. Am i to understand we Are to defend Freedom and democracy with this junk How Many More wasted dollars How Many More must die is asst. Or. President. They re shooting at us. They re killing us. Taking us hostage. Destroying our families and we can t Stop them. We can t defend ourselves or Tell who is Friendly or foe. Let s get out and get the hostages returned. Let them kill themselves the seem to be pretty Good at that. We can t fight the terrorists without causing Amajor conflict. Sure our intelligence network knows where they Are what they re doing. They gave us warning two weeks before the pan am disaster. Do we really need to be there to be involved i Middle Eastern affairs we apparently can t take them seriously. Yet we now have lowered ourselves to openly negotiate with a known terrorist. Yes or. President or. Senator or. Representative another part of me has died. I also lost a bit More Faith. And sometime in the future i la die a Little More lose a Little More Faith when they setback at us again. Spec. Steve Schowiak Giessen West Germany i have just finished Reading the Lead Story on the conclusion of a British government advisory pane that a planted bomb was responsible for the Downing of pan am flight 103. I have a great Deal of anger and apprehension regarding the manner in which our own government considers its overseas civilian and military employees. Although i had no relations or acquaintances aboard the flight i have Felt particularly close to the tragedy As my family and i visited friends in England the Day after the crash who live a relatively Short distance South of Lockerbie. Needless to say the in tense graphic coverage by the British Media for the next several Days forced us to be an unwilling part of this horrible occur Ance. I cannot conceive of the grief that relatives of the victims have experienced but my heart and prayers go out to them. Like Many others i have been informed of the memorandum posted at various . Embassies warning embassy employees of a potential bomb threat on a pan am flight from London to new Yor during the month of december. The question that is begged is simply Why were we not also informed there is no rational or logical answer As i can have heard Many administration spokespersons including the president say publicly that so Man bomb threats Are received during any Given time period that they cannot All be taken with credibility. Also their existence being made Public would Only create great confusion and hysteria unnecessarily. That explanation does not Wash at All. Someone somewhere in the administration believed this bomb threat serious enough to Post it for employees in one . Governmental Agency to be acted upon by their own volition and judgment. Why were not the rest of . Governmental personnel overseas Given the same Opportunity to make a Choice of travel Given this threat Well apparently someone in the administration also made a value judgment that embassy personnel or those Able to read their bulletin boards Are worthy enough to be Given an Opportunity to make a Choice of transportation. Apparently those of us remaining were deemed not worthy of this warning. Are we to assume that these remaining military see flight 103 on next Page
