"Guy Alcala" wrote in message
. ..
Kevin Brooks wrote:

"John Hairell" wrote in message
...

snip interesting stuff

Not well known is that there was a spook component to the original
OH-6 competition. More airframes were manufactured than made public.
40+ airframes were built and flown/tested/crash tested prior to and
during the LOH flyoffs, and some of those aircraft were later used by
three-letter agencies.

John Hairell )

Lemme guess...they were painted black, right? :-) Geeze, John--you just
gave
the alt.conspiracy.whacko crowd the definitive proof of the existance of
"black helicopters" that they have been salivating over...

Well, hell, all they need to do is find a photo of the black H-19 operated
by
the CIA during the Korean War. IIRC it was used to bring out from North
Korea a
fair amount of a crash-landed MiG-15 that had its major bits dismantled in
the
field, and possibly for agent insertions/extractions as well.

After the war it was re-deployed to Roswell, where . . . uh, never mind;-)

Guy (serious about the Korean war usage)

The immenent military fiction writer, W.E.B. Griffith, has covered that CIA
H-19 story (with some literary license, of course) in his latest novel (I am
a Griffith fan from way back--his initial "breakout" series, Brotherhood of
War, was well received by us cadet types in college at the time, with each
new book of the first three selling out quickly in the bookstore...).
Griffith puts Clancy to shame.

Brooks