Dear Mr. Dunn,

Thank you very much for the systematic dismantling of 'Professor' Metzer's lunatic conspiracy theory.  It continually amazes me how this stuff persists...yet it does.

Your rebuttal omits mention of eyewitness accounts of the aircraft flying into the Pentagon.  I was working inside the navy Annex (Federal Office Building 2) that morning, on assignment to the Missile Defense Agency, and watching the developments in New York on television with several co—workers when we heard AA 77 fly directly overhead at a very low altitude.  Seconds later we were rocked by the huge explosion from the Pentagon.

Three points:

1) Three TRW contractors were in the FOB2 parking lot on their way in to meet with me — 2 of the 3 are retired Marine Corps aviators.  All three watched AA 77 barely clear the Sheraton Hotel (clipping rooftop antennas), fly directly overhead FOB2 and straight into the Pentagon.  FOB2 sits on a not insignificant rise SW of the Pentagon.  You have an unbroken line of sight to the Pentagon when on/near FOB2 and its adjacent parking lot, both of which are elevated while the Pentagon is level with the Potomac River.

2) The Douglas A—3 Skywarrior 'Whale' was retired from active duty in 1987 following the failed Jan 87 barricade engagement aboard USS Nimitz that resulted in 7 deaths.  283 Whales were constructed — it would be a simple matter of accounting for each and every airframe thereby eliminating this canard.  In fact, there are just a few remaining airframes (there were a lot of accidents — the A—3 was notoriously difficult to fly).

3) Finally, my Naval Academy roommate's wife's brother (his brother—in—law) was in AA77. He was a world—renown nuclear propulsion physicist.  Enough said — it took her 2 years to recover from that loss.

While this does not refute a potential conspiracy — to suggest that any U.S. Administration could contrive such a calamity merely to enrich themselves and their 'oil buddies' is beyond my expansive imagination.

It seems to me that if just one A—3 had been pulled from mothballs, flown across the country, retrofitted with a forward—firing capability, and flown into the Pentagon, then someone would have known about it and revealed the conspiracy.  These kinds of things just cannot be kept quiet, unless you eliminate all the witnesses...and there would have been a lot of them. I am reminded of the conspiracy theory that claims that a Navy missile downed TWA 800 — how can anyone silence 400 sailors over something like this?  It cannot be done.

Frank Vernet   9 18 06