and why Special Forces and Loadmaster Controller trainees stationed at McChord were using the 727 for training drops at Moses Lake ... during the same time period as the hijacking!
This is the first time I am hearing this. And I recall reading something about McCoy doing specific training...this is significant..and was McCoy training there?
The other night I watched the film All the President's Men, regarding Watergate and the period around the hijacking. What really drew my interest is when the character Deep Throat played by Hal Holbrook explained to Woodward (Robert Redford) the profoundness of the blowback that was coming from everywhere. He explained it wasn't just about Watergate, but all the other illegal stuff going on with FBI CIA etc. Made me think of this caper. Lots of factions at the time doing cover illegal shit and this could have very well been one of them.
Here is my original post - its in the Suspects Thread. June 03, 2017, 03:49:55 PM - You can read people's replies there. I dont believe McCoy was part of that training group or ever trained there.
Possible NEW suspect pool? Quotes: "There was a static drop training range near George, WA (near Moses Lake) in 1971, used by a small group of USAF Special Forces "combat controllers” and by the Army for Loadmaster training. They shared a building at McChord and often trained together at Moses Lake. The program ‘presumably’ included drops from the back of the 727 at Moses Lake. I don’t know if this program ever came under focus when they were looking for DB Cooper, but I did hear that at one time the FBI was looking at the possibility that Cooper had Loadmaster connections. Carr brought that up perhaps because he found it mentioned in a few files. But, here is the rest of the story.
Although the group was small, these were fairly high level trainees and the program at McChord was important.
The USAF Special Forces "combat controllers" did precision freefall drops under various conditions and at night at Moses Lake. They would also drop in and observe or participate in the Loadmaster training sessions being conducted and help provide wind data to the drop aircraft, and guide the air drop in by radio. Their officer in charge was Capt. Wilson."
" M/Sgt R.D. (Wally) had the crew of load masters. They had an "aerial delivery" shop in a corner of a warehouse sort of building at McChord, where they prepared stuff to go out and repacked their cargo chutes after each mission. Their work was important for training Loadmasters going to Vietnam. The group of “USAF Special Forces combat controllers" shared a corner of the same building and each group kept the other informed and did mission planning together. The Loadmaster program was important. Several Army paratroopers from Fort Bragg were always assigned to this unit for Loadmaster training and you had to have previous paratrooper training in order to be accepted into the program. A lot of these people in both programs were training for operations in Vietnam. "
"I know Wilson and Wally got involved during the hijacking case in ‘71. He received the request for chutes and passed it down to Wally’s shop. But then he checked with his superiors and was told not to provide the chutes or participate because full clearance had not been received. The person on the phone hadn’t even identified himself! So we didn’t supply the chutes and they had to go to private sources for those. Then within a couple of days, the matter was cleared up and the Air Force did cooperate, and several groups were formed to cooperate with the FBI and NWA in the Cooper hijacking matter. The FBI and NWA were helpless without our help.
People wondered if the hijacker was one of the people associated with the Moses Lake training operations. That was a very unique group of people with the same skills the hijacker spoke of and demonstrated. I’m not sure how that was checked out."
*Note: Special thanks to a couple of people who helped with this.
photo attached ...
