Michael Glickman’s recent dismissal of military helicopter/crop circle paranoia has touched some raw nerves. Two readers respond…


I read Michael's last comments regarding helicopters. As always he is amusing and interesting, but I feel a need to respond to some of his wonderings and 'concerns' if I might say so.

I've checked through the article at Linda Howe’s website ‘Earthfiles’ ("Helicopter Attacks Wiltshire, England Residents at Knap Hill on August 26 2003", updated Sept 4), and to me it looks like there is a point to be made here. Helicopters making cracks in houses, and flying just all too near cars and people, don't sound like an acceptable behaviour from the military when approaching civilians. Even if Linda uses a melodramatic language, she is anyway describing events which should not be tolerated. If I were a resident/tourist in Wiltshire and had experienced something as described in Linda's article, I would file a complaint to MoD or possibly some other government authority. Even better would be if that complaint could be consigned by all those having had a similar experience. This would give authorities a chance to provide a more comprehensive and exhaustive explanation to this behaviour, unless it can viewed as "normal" in England (it is certainly NOT in Sweden). And leave the crop circles out of the story/complaint to start with... (purely tactical) ...and then continue to see how you can frame them, if there is a good reason for that.

MARTIN

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In his latest article, re. helicopters over crop formations in England, Mr Glickman seems to have overlooked the other report on Linda Moulton-Howe's website wherein a citizen was "buzzed" (for lack of a better term) by a military chopper at only a dozen feet or so as she sat in her car with a friend. The chopper hung stationary just over the vehicle, while the extreme turbulence of its props at that close range pelted the car's occupants with debris, stones and other detritus through the open windscreen. The occupants were by turns terrified and then furious, and who can blame them? Is it any wonder why people such as Howe, Marshall and others choose to portray these reports and their own personal experiences with these war machines in military terms?

I mean, seriously, Mr Glickman, what-in-hell do you suppose these pilots are thinking? Why would a military helicopter (yes... bristling with gunports and high-tech gadgetry) make a bee-line for a citizen out minding his or her own business in the English countryside on a beautiful morning? I doubt very much, as you seem to imply in your article, that the pilots of such aircraft would have the lee-way to survey the English countryside willy-nilly and just pop down to check out the latest crop circles... unless there is a very hush-hush investigation into these things. You do nothing in the military without orders, up to and including taking a chopper up for a joy-ride on a summer's day.

It seems pretty obvious from this side of the pond, the explanation for some of these encounters betwixt the citizenry and the military choppers: plainly, it's an effort to intimidate.

LARRY COOK, Fargo ND USA

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MICHAEL GLICKMAN REPLIES TO HIS CRITICS IN HIS LATEST COLUMN (NOVEMBER 2003).