@ Bruce.
The presentations you posted on YouTube are very well done. I watched all of them and was impressed with your presentation skills and for your ability to convey the Cooper story to the public.
I have a couple of questions about comments you make during those presentations.
1) Re: Tina Bar money find. You mention that the pilot, Bill Rataczak, requested and was denied permission to fly out over the ocean. After that idea was nixed you theorize that Rataczak opted to fly as far east in the flight corridor as permissible in order to take DBC over more remote terrain and therefore Cooper's LZ would have been further east than what the FBI calculated.
Question: wouldn't Rataczak have informed the FBI of this during his interviews so they would know where to look? After all, he was angry and wanted Cooper dead or caught as you said?
2) Re: Criticisim of the FBI for not getting their suits dirty and beating the bushes to look for Cooper. Question: How many FBI agents where assigned to this case and available to go searching for Cooper in the suspected LZ? What percentage of the LZ could they have covered in one week's time? I recall reading somewhere that the USAF flew SR-71 and other reconnaissance missions in support of the manhunt. Any truth to that and wouldn't that be more effective than sending all available personnel into the woods where they would be out of contact during a critical time in the case?
Thank you, Mack.
1. You ask a reasonable question about what Rataczak would have told the FBI about his flight path and where they should be looking for DB Cooper. It seems that Rataczak did tell Himmelsbach that 305 was east of Victor 23 and probably over the Washougal. But when did he tell him? That is not known, really. Certainly not by me. Also, when and to what degree did Rataczak push the Washougal information towards the Seattle FBI agents? Again, unknown.
2. As I understand the case, about 30 agents were assigned to Norjak on the night of the skyjacking. This comes from Sid Rubin, a rookie SA on the case that night at Sea-Tac perimeter duty. Another SA rookie, George Grobin, told me that about two-dozen FBI agents were in the Amboy-Ariel area for the ground searches in March and April 1972. They did not get their shoes too muddy, but they were nearby. Over the course of the investigation, Bob Sale told Sailshaw and me that about five agents were assigned in Seattle to Cooper through the first few years, with other Seattle agents being assigned as squads got special assignments, such as interviewing SOG guys at Fort Bragg, etc.
Yes, an SR-71 was assigned to fly recon over the potential LZ, but it was hampered most of the time due to cloud cover. I think it only had one or two "successful" missions. Geoffrey Gray discusses this aspect of the investigation in his book, SKYJACK. There has been discussion here about a more reasonable technological means - using infrared devices immediately via helos and flying through the night to search for a warm body in the woods. Yes, the false reads due to wildlife would be staggering, but it is a plausible approach. Now, I would imagine that the NSA has got high tech gizmos on satellites to accomplish the same task.
Tom McDowell, the Cowlitz County Undersheriff who headed the ground search in LZ-A said that his search area was approximately 24 square miles, and his team of 20-24 deputies and volunteers covered about one square mile of terrain from Friday at 1pm until Monday morning when the search was terminated. That's basically three days with 20 guys to cover 5% of the prime LZ.
Bottom Line: A needle in a haystack is still a needle in a haystack even when you're looking with the latest gear.
