Season 8, Episode Thirteen June 23, 2024

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This is the Listening Tube.

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Hello. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. Subscribe today. I'm your host, Bob Woodley. If you hear a chainsaw in the background, that's just my wife. On this episode, we'll hear about how a bomb in West Berlin led to a lot of bombs in Libya. And I'll talk to one of the men who got them there. Plus, Law Fair.

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But

Not the Headlines

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first, not the headlines.

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We've heard about climate change on this program a lot of times, and rightly so. After all, the climate's been changing since the formation of the planet and will continue to change long after we're gone. Certainly, there should be concern about what happens in our planet's atmosphere. We rely on it for our very lives and everything that contributes to them. From the Earth's crust to the outer edge of our atmosphere, we are dependent upon the climate of our planet to feed us and shelter us from threats from outer space like the sun's radiation and meteorites. Not to mention the air we breathe. All of that is above the surface of the earth. So, how are things below the surface? Turns out that's changing too. A story by Will Kuang from USC.edu says a study by USC scientists have discovered that the Earth's core is slowing down. Now, it's easy to imagine that as the Earth spins, it all spins in the same direction at the same speed. After all, the inside of a baseball spins at the same rate of speed as the cover. But it's not that simple when it comes to our home planet. The Earth's inner core seems to have a mind of its own. Made of solid iron and nickel, surrounded by a liquid core of the same chemical makeup, it's 3,000 miles below our feet, and, like the Earth itself, spins. It's very hard to study since we can't just go there and look at it. Our best ground penetrating radar isn't any help. But scientists have figured out that they can use earthquakes to get the measurements they need to determine the rate of speed at which the Earth's core rotates. As it turns out, the core had been spinning slightly faster than the mantle up to the surface. But now it's actually spinning slower than the surface for the first time, according to scientists, in 40 years. They say it started to slow down 14 years ago. Of course it did. That's when I married my wife. The story says the implications on what happens on the surface of the planet can only be imagined at this point. One of the research scientists mentioned in the story said it may alter the length of an Earth day by a fraction of a second, but added, the dance of the inner core might be even more lively than we know so far. In other words, the speed at which the Earth's core spins may have been changing throughout the planet's history. Until now, we had no idea. And not knowing didn't do us any harm. Now that we know the core is slowing down, the only logical conclusion is that at some point it will slow down so much that it starts spinning the other way. The friction caused by the reverse rotation will cause so much friction with the outer core that the planet's temperature will rise exponentially, ultimately destroying all life on the planet. But somehow, we'll find a way to blame it on fossil fuels. As you may know, one of the reasons I started the listening tube was because I was disappointed in the state of our news media. Somewhere along the way, the media became less about news and more about influence. The people who pulled the media levers decided that we weren't smart enough to make decisions on our own if we were only given the facts. It may have all started in 1980 when CNN signed on the air as a 24-hour news service. Unfortunately, there isn't enough news with general interest to fill 24 hours a day, so opinion became a way to fill the time. Now, most of what we hear on so-called news stations is mostly opinion, often disguised as news. Don't get me wrong, there's some news in there somewhere, but if you don't pay close attention, you may be fooled into believing someone's opinion is fact. Luckily, daily newspapers were still chock full of actual news. They even have a separate page just for opinions so you can tell which it is you're reading. Local daily newspapers became the most reliable source of news, both local news and national and international news. Then along came the Internet. At first, newspapers resisted using the Internet as an outlet. Eventually they relented and put their papers online for free. The result was that people stopped buying the print version. Suddenly, local newspapers realized they had to find a way to charge money for people to read the paper on the internet. They had to backtrack. But it was too late. People had already found other ways to get news online. Local newspapers around the country started going out of business. Even the big ones are hurting. The Washington Post lost a staggering $77 million just last year. Well, in every tragedy there's opportunity. That's why. For the first time, what's commonly known as dark money publications outnumber daily newspapers. So what are they? I talked about one of them on this program a while back, the Pennsylvania Independent, which shows up in my mailbox from time to time. It calls itself independent, although it's anything but A story in Axios says the number of local daily newspapers in the United States fell to just one thousand two hundred and thirteen last year, and there may be fewer now. Meanwhile, dark money newspapers now equal one thousand two hundred and sixty-five. So who's got the money to fill the gap left by local newspapers? As of two weeks ago, there were seven entities creating these influence peddling publications, both in print and online. They are, according to the story, Metric Media, Dugan, Local Report, States Newsroom, Courier American Independent, LGIS, and AZ Free News. Surprisingly, there are as many left-leaning publications as there are right-leaning publications. But the number of publications varies by state, depending upon if it's a blue state, a red state, or a purple state. Examples of purple states would be Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Other so-called key swing states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida, along with the purple states, have more of these dark money publications than the rest. The exception is California, which has more dark money publications than any state, about 75 in total, but all of them favor the left. The highest number of right wing publications in any state is Wisconsin's 62. So where does the money come from? Billionaires. On the right and on the left. And for these publications there's no middle ground. They may look like a local newspaper, they may look like a local website, but they're not. And they're not newspapers either. They're propaganda publications designed to fool us. You might be reading a story and think to yourself, that's exactly how I see it too. Or wow, this is total garbage. And you would be right. Because the news media in the United States is now designed to separate us instead of inform us. Foreign governments hostile to the U.S. are also getting in on the game. Pro Kremlin and Chinese Communist Party stories often pop up on the websites. So how do you recognize dark money publications? It's actually pretty easy. Your regular daily newspaper has people's names in it. They tell you who the publisher is, who the editor is, who wrote the stories. These dark money rags don't have bylines and may not even have an address, let alone a local address. After all, a website doesn't need a physical address anywhere. Bottom line is, be careful where you get your news. As far as I can tell, there are no middle-of-the-road news groups left. They all have an agenda, and that agenda isn't to inform you, it's to influence you. If you just want information, you'll be best served by watching news during the daytime hours. Once five o'clock rolls around, most of what you'll find on the news channels is opinion. Especially during prime time. Primetime is when the talking heads tell you all about how bad the other side is. Sadly, that's what politics has devolved into. The fall of the local newspaper has left a void that's being filled by partisan rags that have no other purpose than to influence the reader. Either to the right or to the left. So what can you do? Educate yourself. When I went into broadcasting school, we were taught the definition of news: information about current events the public wants or needs to know. When you read a story, keep that definition in mind. Separate the information from the opinion and other nonsense. You might be surprised at how little information you need or want to know is

Let's Go Back, Mike Vogt, Navy Pilot

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in there.

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Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history.

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Well, it's not this week in history this week, but there is an historic story to tell. When I was stationed in West Berlin back in the mid-80s, there were a few nightclubs that American soldiers would tend to frequent. There was the speakeasy, the top hat, the Starlight Lounge, and also one called LaBelle's. In March of 1986, LaBelle's was the target of a bombing that killed two American servicemen and injured scores of others. One of the Army women I worked with, Tina, moonlighted there, working the door. Luckily, she wasn't there when the bomb went off, but an army guy I worked with was there, just outside waiting to go in. He was quoted in the New York Times, but attributed to the Armed Forces television network as saying he heard a loud boom and the window shook. People were walking around in pain from the wounds. It was very panicky. They came running out, shouting, Hey man, there was a bomb inside. The origin of the bomb was traced back to Libyan terrorists. Moamar Qaddafi was Libya's dictator. Well, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States at the time. You might recall him from the Deaf Leopard song Gods of War, saying he counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong. Something had to be done. As it happened, the USS Coral Seal, an American aircraft carrier, was in the neighborhood, and they already had a plan for the attack of the chosen target on the ship. The plan was composed by a man named Commander Craig Tuning, also known as Gator. The plan had been sitting in a safe on the ship for months, and President Reagan wanted that plan put into action. Having already left the Mediterranean Sea, the USS Cole headed back in with a mission. Called Operation El Dorado Canyon, the target was a Libyan airfield near Benghazi. Gator would be not only the man who crafted the attack plan, he would also be the navigator and bombardier on one of the planes to be used in the mission. His pilot was Lieutenant Commander Mike Vot, aka Voter. The planes they used were the A6E Intruder. Six of them would carry out the mission. The fourth intruder in line was the one that contained Voter and Gator. My guest this week is Voter, aka retired Navy Captain Mike Vot. Mike was kind enough to let me ask him about that mission. How did you find out you were going on this mission to bomb Libya?

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Well, as uh my bombardier uh you know, Captain Tuning, uh every air wing is assigned a uh a strike package when they depart Norfolk, and strike leaders uh get their their strike planning teams together within the airwing and put together a a plan to take out the target that they are assigned. And there are multiple targets throughout the Mediterranean, and and that's not to imply that we're warmongers uh bloodthirsty looking to hurt somebody, but these are targets that are uh uh that would be of interest to national security. And uh so the the strike team has put put together a plan and it's briefed to the embark flag officer, the strike group commander, and presented to him, and he he ultimately will will approve uh the plan. They're put in a can and uh kept in uh in a secure facility aboard the ship, and uh uh if and when that target is determined to be a suitable uh place to exp to expand ordinance, it's pulled out, dusted off, uh reviewed, revised based on uh the current climate or events in the Mediterranean. And the strike crews are briefed and given a launch time, and away they go. I I think uh had an inkling, uh more than probably more than an inkling, uh some some level of of uh positivity that uh that strike was going to be executed sometime uh during our deployment. Uh so I kind of fuzzy answer to you to your question, but uh uh th those are the facts as uh as I recall them. That was something that we uh knew that we might be executing, and we needed to be prepared on uh you know relatively short notice uh to execute it. Uh we were given a firm go time, if you will, a firm a firm launch time of uh uh 15 April uh 1986, and our selected time on target was uh was 0200 or 2 a.m. Libyan time, uh which meant that uh all day on the 14th of April, uh up until uh when we launched from the carrier, sometime around uh uh 1 a.m. on the 15th, we were preparing airplanes to fly in that strike. Each aircraft that flew in the strike, the the A6 intruders, the bombers, had a very heavy ordnance load. I think we had two airplanes with 22,500-pound bombs, which equates to almost 15,000 pounds of ordnance. And then uh three airplanes, four airplanes with 14 CBU 59 APAM, that acronym stands for anti-personnel, anti-materiel cluster bombs. They weighed 750 pounds apiece, and that equates to a little over 14,000 pounds of ordinance. As the squadron maintenance officer, I I was very busy during that time because uh it was my responsibility to make sure the airplanes were ready to go. Uh, it was my responsibility to make sure they were they were uh ready for flight. They had all the equipment uh that they needed was was installed and operable. And so uh from a personal perspective, very busy day for me. And we were targeting and preparing for a brief the evening of the 14th that started probably uh 10 p.m. or so, and uh we all knew what our procedures were, but in typical fashion, we reviewed everything in you know in a very painstaking manner. Our strike lead was very thorough and uh directive, and he knew the plan uh inside and out. And I would hazard to say or that we all did, but uh it's always good to get refreshed. I think we broke from the uh the brief at uh uh 11 o'clock ish, somewhere in there, gave us a chance to relax for a minute, uh reflect, and uh get our flight gear on and leave the ready room sometime around, I think we left sometime around midnight that evening and walked up to the jets pre-flighted and started them up and the launch began at around uh 1 a.m. in the morning. Did you have a chance to get any sleep that day at all? No. That that's that was not part of the uh not part of the program. I I say that kind of tongue-in-cheek. Uh we learn uh during deployment to uh to catnap, to to catch 20 minutes of sleep or rest or a quiet time when you can, because uh you need to build on that. I mean that's that's that was our you know the the the the refresher time to to make sure you're you know you're you're mentally and physically ready to go. Occasional catnaps during the day and uh and this when you know this was kind of my life for for the nine-month deployment. You know, aviators survive on a Snickers bar in a coke. That's that's kind of how how you live uh on on the ship. Uh keep your energy up, uh sleep when you can't, and uh uh keep your head on a swivel and always be watching uh for for uh uh you know the dangers of the flight deck and and the hangar bay for that matter.

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Now, what were your personal feelings when you found out that you were going on this bombing raid? Were you were you nervous, excited, apprehensive? What what was going through your mind?

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I was uh probably the the most experienced A6 pilot in the squadron. I'd had more tours and more flight hours and more carrier arrested landings uh day and night than any other pilot in the squadron. And this mission was something that I I had trained for with my bombardier uh and had spent the majority of that time at sea flying the airplane. I can tell you when you when you load it up an A6 with wall-to-wall bombs, as we as we had, the airplane drives kind of like a truck. I mean, it it's it's got power steering, so to speak, but uh it doesn't want to move and turn real quickly. I looked out, um, was looking out over my left shoulder at my wing and on the and and I could see the the wings on my airplane flexing up and down due to the turbulence and the weight of the ordnance on the airplane. So I share that with you just as just to kind of reinforce the notion that uh the airplanes were were lumbering, they're performing you know okay. It just uh was it was a challenging experience to uh to to fly the airplanes in that configuration, uh in a formation and fighting turbulence and uh you know low clouds, and I don't know that it was raining at the time, but I don't know that we would even have known. I I just remember it being uh very, very dark. So it was just another day at the office for you, really. Tongue in cheek, say it was it was intruder weather. Uh that that's how they that's what the airplane was designed to do to fly all weather attack. And with the uh the range that the airplane has, it's it was uh you know the the primary striking power of carrier battle group. I mean, we we could reach out and and touch somebody five hundred, six hundred miles away and return to the ship without. Any tanking because the aircraft had that range. We trained to that environment at our home base at Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia. We would work out the timing. We would find out where the where there were any weaknesses or glitches and incorporate that into the revised brief and be ready to go to do it again. So what was the target in Libya? The target in Libya was uh Benina Airfield complex. Bonina is about 25 miles east of the city of Benghazi. Bonina is is uh was specifically a MiG-base, a MiG-23 base. It had hangars, supporting uh equipment facilities, fuel depots. It also was a kind of a joint use uh in our terms, a joint use uh civilian military base. There were civilian airliners, the airfield that night. The targets for each of the 6A6s were assigned based on uh the latest intelligence that told us where any moving vehicles were, where the hangars were, which weren't movable obviously, but uh where they coincided with the I'll call it a convenient route of flight. The targets were uh geographically separated so that even though we were all following the same, the same, the six of us were following essentially the same track to the target area, uh as we neared the airfield, uh the air the aircraft uh veered slightly from the baseline entry point to bomb their particular target using a level or laydown type delivery directly over flying their target at low altitude, high speed. The the release uh parameters were about 300 feet, 450 plus knots. The aircraft were separated by 40 to 50 seconds, going over the target. We had established that separation over the water and maintained that uh uh separation through each of us flying the same airspeed. In this particular instance, at about uh four miles from the target where things are starting to get really hot, there was a lot of uh a lot of metal in the air, surface to air missiles in the air, uh a lot of explosions. Uh, I wanted to see what my bombardier was looking at, and I did a uh did a quick check and I saw that his reticles were centered on a line of MiG-23s, and uh conveniently located just at the end of that line of MiG-23s was a hangar. So we were we were directly on our our preferred track across the ground, and when our weapons uh were released, they covered that entire length of of MiG-23s, and the the string of bombs extended into the hangar, and I know we took out at least a corner of that hangar. And uh from from my perspective, uh uh we we were I I wasn't concerned with uh I'm not sure how to how to even put it, uh the thought of getting uh hit by missile or shot down or whatever in the target area really doesn't cross your mind in the heat of battle because you're you're you're working very, very hard to to get a precise weapons release and to make make your efforts to get there worthwhile, so to speak.

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So the the MiG-23s for for people who don't know were Soviet-made fighters. How many of them did you take out?

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Well, I I from it looked to me uh like there were were 10 or 12 in that, you know, parked in a row. Uh there may have been more uh that I didn't see in the uh in the in the uh uh in the FLIR. It was a very brief look for me because when I did that I lost my attitude reference. I didn't, you know, I I didn't have any gyro or anything to look at at that point. So it was it was just a habit pattern that I had, and uh I I didn't maneuver at the airplane at all while we were uh while I I was looking at the FLIR, but it was a very brief uh glance uh at the FLIR, and and that's what I saw.

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So it it sounds like they were ready for you, were they?

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We were uh number four in the in the string of six airplanes going up going across the target. And uh I was about three minutes or so behind the lead airport. So about two or three about three minutes prior to our our target time, uh I I could see flashes on the uh in the near horizon. And again, I remember this was it was very, very dark that night. When we left our separation point over the water and were inbound as a single ship uh to the target, we were flying at 100 to 200 feet over the water at 420 knots. And I I remember we were about three minutes, three minutes from the target when the lead airplane's uh uh ordnance started started exploding, and and then his wingman number two started to you know started exploding a minute later, etc. I could see these flashes on the on the near horizon. Silhouetted in the flashes, uh I saw what looked to be telephone poles rising and a you know telephone pole with a f with a flame at the end. Well, those are surface-to-air missiles, and they were they were uh silhouetted against the the flames you know backdrop. To say that they were ready, I'm I'm not sure. I don't know that I would I would attribute the Libyans to having that uh that that type of a capability, but uh I I do suspect that you know when those missiles started coming up that quickly, that they were unguided. It was a a Libyan missile man's wing in a prayer cover, if you will, to protect himself after the fact when his boss, who's coming after him with a with a saber to cut his head off, uh he can say, Hey, I I fought, I shot my missiles, I did everything I was supposed to do. And I'm speculating and you know, kind of tongue-in-cheek here, but uh I I know we I know there was uh some anti-aircraft fire from guns. Uh I know that from what one of my wingmen told me after the strike that they saw a missile directly overfly my airplane as my as we released our weapons. I never saw that, but it suggests to me that it was probably a handheld or shoulder-mounted uh short-range missile that somebody uh picked up and you know saw an airplane or just maybe just fired it into the air in that area. But I don't I don't know that they were prepared for us per se.

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When all was said and done, and I I know there's more to the story because you were uh in the threat of running out of fuel and had to get fuel from a tanker over the Mediterranean on your way back to the USS Cole. But when you landed and everything was said and done, and the the debriefing happened, uh what was the first thing you did when when this whole thing was behind you?

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I uh I sat down and and uh chatted with my my my roommate. And uh it it was uh you know the the adrenaline was was uh wearing off by then. We were we were the last aircraft in the strike group to land by about 25 or 30 minutes. And it was because we had to deviate into the further south into the desert to uh uh avoid a surface-to-air missile lock that locked us up uh over the target area. And uh uh we had that we all we could do was maneuver uh at low altitude and try and f you know try and look for look for, if you will, sand dunes to hide so that we could break line of sight with this with this tracking radar. Well, that took a long time. Finally got out to about 30 miles from the the target area, and that was the the max range of the missile, so uh we felt relatively safe. We turned north to head back to the ship and found that we had we had ended up probably a hundred miles or so further south into the desert than we were supposed to be. So by the time we hit the coast uh heading north to get back to the ship uh and started climbing out when we were out of any threat, uh I I noted and you know my I I resumed my normal night instrument scan and and and noted that we were very, very low on gas and w would not we're not gonna be able to get back to the ship with what we had. So we had to get had to find our tanker, uh which we was pre-planned. Uh we were able to rendezvous with him, took on 8,000 pounds of gas and then went back to the ship. Well, by the time we landed and got back to the ship, the air wing had pretty much dispersed and gone their own way. We walked into the ready room thinking that uh everybody was gonna be hooting and hollering, and uh in in fact they weren't. But they the ready room was was dead. Everybody had gone their separate ways. So I took my flight gear off and met with my maintenance chief and uh got a debrief on the air aircraft status and uh said, okay, my my job's done for the day, and went and took my gear off. And uh my my trusty roommate was up waiting for me, and uh so we sat down and uh I I talked him to the flight, told him what we did, and uh had a had a relaxing uh discussion with them and and then went to bed. Was uh you know, kind of slept, slept like a log for a couple of hours and got up and uh started the day all over again. You know, groundhog day, here we come.

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Well, uh Captain Vote, it's it's been a real pleasure and an honor to speak with you today. I I really do appreciate you taking the time out to meet with me, and I do appreciate you sharing it with us. Is there anything that you'd just like to add that I didn't ask about?

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Um I I I would I I think it appropriate to comment that uh while uh the aviators uh uh in involved in this mission did extremely well, I I am absolutely overwhelmed by the efforts made by our enlisted maintenance men, the ordinancemen who prepared the airplanes, uh prepared the ordinance. Uh they were diligent, professional, they did everything right. Uh nothing failed that night. Uh in my airplane in particular, what what a jet that was. And uh you know, I I roundly applaud uh the maintainers and the ordinanceman uh who helped us through that and did their job. And uh I know they were very proud, and I'm very proud of them. And I'm uh flattered that uh with your invitation to speak with you. I hope that uh uh the aviators on station today are uh feeling the same things and uh working with their their enlisted maintainers and ordinancemen just as we did.

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The A6E intruder aircraft that was flown by voter and gator is now on display at the Lycoming County Veterans Memorial in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

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The listening tube will return at the speed of sound.

Epilogue

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Contact the listening tube by calling 570-601-1101 or email thelistening tube at outlook.com.

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So Donald Trump is guilty, and Hunter Biden is guilty. You might be hearing the word lawfare lately, and that's why. But these aren't the first cases of it, and it looks like they won't be the last, as both men have upcoming trials for additional crimes they are alleged to have committed. But there are plenty of people in jail for who have been convicted of crimes while working in politics. But most of the time, when a crime is committed, the police search for a suspect. Lately, we determine who the criminal is, then find a crime with which to charge them. By now you might be thinking, but Bob, Hunter Biden isn't even in politics. Donald Trump wants to be president again. Well, you could be right, but if Hunter Biden isn't involved in politics, how did he come inches away from a plea deal that would have given him immunity for the rest of his life?

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Well, that can't be right.

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If not for a sharp-eyed and analytical judge, the Biden Department of Justice almost made it happen. Donald Trump is counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to determine if the president has immunity while performing official duties. That decision should come any day. But if lawfare isn't enough to discourage you to not vote for somebody, negative ads are filling TV pictures and radio speakers and websites. I got one the other day that offered me a binary question about Joe Biden. My choices were dishonesty or dementia. It was mailed by a political action committee, not endorsed by any candidate. Most of what we see is as proclaiming how bad the other guy is. We hardly hear anything about policy or the good job you've done if you're an incumbent, which for our purposes, both presumed presidential candidates basically are. We can look at each candidate's record and compare them. Something we don't normally get to do. But none of the pack ads you'll hear or see will talk about their candidate, just the other guy and what a catastrophe it will be if they win. But they have both already been president, and the planet is still here, so clearly neither of them destroyed the world or democracy. This is an easy comparison, unlike any we've ever had before. I would like to again thank retired Navy Captain Mike Vogt for sharing his time with us. And thank he and retired Navy Captain Craig Juning for attending the dedication ceremony of their personal intruder. The listening tube is written and produced by yours truly, copyright 2024. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. Subscribe today. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, I'll add infinite.

unknown 37:57

I love the work on it and did.