Black Helicopters and Black Operations
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) is a
helicopter unit whose sole purpose is to deliver and pick-up
Special Operations commandos at the site of the intended hit. It is
based in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia,
and Panama (Army Times, July 10, 1995).
It was almost certainly this regiment that flew the black helicopters
over Mt. Carmel on February 28, strafing the women's and
children's quarters with machine gun fire.
The Night Stalkers Bring Death in the Dark
The missions of the 160th are secret and often flown at night; not
surprisingly, its helicopters are painted black and carry no insignia
(Army Times, July 10, 1995, pg. 13 and pg. 14). Members of the
160th call themselves the "Night Stalkers." "Death Waits in the
Dark" is their motto. Both the 1st and 2nd Battalions have emblems
mixing Greek mythology with the occult.
The emblem of the 1st battalion is a black robed warrior holding a
scarlet saber over his shoulder, riding the winged horse of Greek
mythology. These two are shown against a full moon in a dark sky;
both warrior and winged horse have starburst eyes (shown above).
The emblem of the 2nd battalion is a warrior
whose upper body is human, and whose lower
body is a winged horse. This warrior holds a
scarlet saber in his left hand, and points with his
right. Over his shoulder is a crescent moon.
The 160th Regiment was the subject of close
scrutiny in the AJF video America Under Siege.
After this exposure and the two Waco videos
produced by AJF, the 160th was forced to come
out of the closet. The July 10, 1995 Army Times
carried a cover story on the 160th (Army Times,
July 10, 1995 cover). Several photos of the
160th's black helicopters appear in that edition, as
does the organization board and the emblems.
Also of interest in that story is the soldier in the
Army Times, July 10, 1995 cover picture,
particularly the emblem on his helmet, magnified
here for visibility. It shows a cracked skull and
crossbones with the words, "Ghostriders Aerial
Gun Platoon--Social Misfits."
This is hardly the emblem of soldiers motivated by
protection of their homeland, hearts afire with
ideals of liberty, looking forward to peace bought
by courage and victory. This emblem belongs to
pirates, sociopathic bikers, and street gangs.
The US military for many years has positioned a
life in the military as a "professional" choice, with
medical and educational benefits, travel, and
handsome retirement pay. In questionable
honesty, the appeal is aimed at candidates'
self-interest. In marked contrast to the age of
World War II, the subject of worthy patriotic sacrifice
is almost never mentioned.
After the failure of the Marine helicopters to
perform in the Iranian hostage rescue fiasco, Delta force
founder Col. Charlie Beckwith wanted to establish a
helicopter unit dedicated solely to transporting
the Delta force. He described the men he wanted:
"Aces, daredevils, barnstormers, guys who flew
by the seats of their pants, hot-rodders, pilots who
could pick it up, turn it around on a dime and put
it back down with a flair." That is, Beckwith was
looking for thrill seekers who live on the edge.
Thus the 160th Airborne was born.
Beckwith's words were quoted by writers Frank Greve &
Ellen Warren in a series of articles they
wrote for the Knight Ridder news service. The articles
appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer,
December 16-17, 1984, under the title "Secret US Unit
in War Zone." Warren and Greve also cites
one of the nation's top military helicopter safety
experts who examined partial reports of some of the
160th's fatal accidents. After his inspection, the
expert called the 160th maintenance program
"atrocious." Disregard for personal safety is of
course part of the thrill seeker's mind set.
The same appeal to thrill seekers who live on the
edge appears in an ad placed by the Army
National Guard in the Non Commissioned Officers
Association Journal of August/September, 1996.
The ad offers potential guardsmen "action and
adventure," but promises that they will "still make it
home for dinner" after--killing people? The ad shows
faceless commandos disembarking from a
black helicopter, as flown by the 160th Special
Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne).
With the July 10, 1995 story in the Army Times,
we can see the change of purpose has come full
circle: Special Ops, with its death cult images and
mottos, is presented in Madison Avenue hype as
the creme de la creme of warfighter achievement.
The members live in danger and adventure, they
glory in a devil-may-care disregard for personal
safety, and they see regular combat action. "Risk of
death is a constant companion for 160th SOAR [Special
Operations Aviation Regiment]," boasts
the Army Times.
Body Mutilation and Drug Use
Sometimes Special Ops personnel who are on covert
missions become injured and cannot be
retrieved and given medical assistance. These people
are left behind--but killed first by
their own comrades who decapitate the body
and remove the hands to prevent identification.
This information comes to the Museum from an
unofficial source through the medical personnel of
Special Ops. These medical personnel have special
duties to administer drugs (uppers) to
commandos to enhance their performance and
depress the desire for sleep while on mission.
When the mission is over, other drugs (downers)
are administered to bring the commandos down.
Body Laundering
We now come to another practice of the US military
and especially Special Operations: Body
laundering, sometimes called "body washing." When
Special Ops personnel die on secret and illegal
missions, a problem is created for the military
bureaucracy. The military cannot tell the families how
the serviceman died, so the body is "laundered."
That is, a cover story is invented to explain the
death, and the body of the dead soldier is mutilated
in such a way to corroborate the cover story.
Journalists Frank Greve and Ellen Warren wrote of
the practice in their series which appeared in the
Philadelphia Inquirer on December 16 & 17, 1984
(cited above). According to the article, during
the Vietnam War, soldiers were killed while on
CIA secret missions in Laos and Cambodia. "If a
guy was killed on a mission, and if it was sensitive
politically, we'd ship the body back home and
have a jeep roll over on him at Fort Huachuca," one
former officer told the two Knight-Ridder
writers. Ft. Huachuca is a covert operations
base in Arizona.
"Or," the former officer said, "we'd arrange a
chopper crash, or wait until one happened and insert a
body or two into the wreckage later. It's not that difficult."
And the secret Special Ops helicopter unit, the
160th Task Force, almost certainly laundered the
bodies of its servicemen when they were killed in
El Salvador. The widow of a 160th pilot who died
in a crash reported that her husband told her just
days before his death, "If I ever die in an accident
and they tell you I was a spy, or if I crash
somewhere that I'm not supposed to be, don't ever
believe that I was spying or wasn't working for
the Army," according to Greve and Warren
(Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16, 1984).
A cousin of another deceased member of the 160th
Task Force said that two weeks before his
death, the man told her that whatever happened
to him, "the Army could pull whatever they wanted
to make it look other ways." (Philadelphia Inquirer,
December 16, 1984).
According to the Greve and Warren article, fines,
imprisonment, and loss of rank can result from
breaches of security by military personnel. "That's
in the top-secret category, so I'm not going
to talk about that," said one Army airman familiar
with the Central American missions. "I don't want
to go to jail."
The Washington Post, May 6, 1996 (Public Honors for
Secret Combat) described body laundering during the El
Salvador operation. Many who knew the truth about the circumstances
surrounding the soldiers deaths were troubled by the outright false
official reports relatives received, says the Post.
Judy Lujan, wife of Army Lt. Col. Joseph H. Lujan,
was told her husband died in 1987 when the
helicopter carrying him crashed into a hillside during
stormy weather. But the Army never produced
her husband's personal effects or photographs of
his corpse, despite her repeated requests, she said.
"I can't get on with my life, I can't do anything,
until I know for sure he's dead."
Relatives of Gregory A. Fronius, a 28-year-old Green
Beret sergeant, know he was slain during a
guerrilla attack on a Salvadoran brigade's headquarters
at El Paraiso. But initially they were informed
Fronius had died in his barracks when a mortar shell
struck. In fact, Fronius had bolted from the
barracks and was trying to rally Salvadoran soldiers
for a counterattack when several guerrilla
snipers shot him, then blew up his body with an
explosive charge.
"First they told me one thing, then I found out
something else," said Celinda Carney, who was
married to Fronius. "I was upset."
Insight Magazine, January 29, 1996 reported that
one of the magazine's Special Ops contacts was
predicting bodies would be laundered as a result
of the Bosnian "peacekeeping" mission. With many
Special Ops personnel operating in Bosnia, some of
their missions will likely be extremely sensitive
and high risk, with plausible deniability built into
them, said the source. "When their bodies come
home, they will be identified not as soldiers, but as
businessmen or members of nonmilitary
government agencies. The truths about their
deaths will be difficult to learn," says author Anthony
Kinnery.
"If I'm on one of these missions that's deep,
deep black, you can safely bet few, if any, in
Congress -- maybe not even the secretary of defense --
knows about what the hell I'm doing," says a
black operative. "And if I get killed and my body's
fortunate enough to be recovered, you can also
bet I'll turn up dead in a car wreck in some place
like Munich or Berlin." (Insight Magazine, January
29, 1996, Secrecy Shrouds Spy Deaths.)
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