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Last Moments of Navy Man Still a Puzzle
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
By Thom Shanker
The New York Times

"I will tell you that I have talked to three, maybe four people who were either present or have reviewed the result of this," General Franks said, "and it would probably not surprise you that each of the three or four has a different view of what happened."

WASHINGTON -- NYT
The mystery surrounding the combat death of a Navy Seal deepened today as Pentagon officials said the commando's search-and-rescue beacon was activated by hand after he tumbled from a helicopter in Afghanistan.

That fact, contained in classified after-action reports reaching Washington, was interpreted by some Pentagon officials and military officers as proof that Petty Officer Neil C. Roberts, 32, survived his fall from an MH-47 Chinook helicopter that was ferrying Special Operations forces into battle near Gardez.

Even so, the officials could not say with certainty whether Petty Officer Roberts then died from injuries he had already received, either from his fall or from enemy fire, or whether he subsequently died at the hands of enemy forces after being captured.

"The general feeling here is that after he fell from the helicopter he turned on the strobe," said one military officer.

Another official who has read the after-action reports said: "He was alive when he left the chopper. We don't know how he was wounded. We're not sure how he died."

Other officials cautioned that Petty Officer Roberts might not have survived his fall from the helicopter as it abruptly changed course when it come under fire on Sunday.

If he did die immediately from his fall, it is possible that adversaries coming upon his body figured out how to turn on the homing device in hopes of luring American rescuers into an ambush, those officials said.
(More: The New York Times News Source)
2002 © The New York Times.

It is also possible the apes going through his stuff, searching for weapons and rations, could have inadvertently activated his beacon. Let’s face it, he did land almost right on top of them, and shooting dead people is something that does happen. It’s on the books that a certain irate Judge Bean even had a dead man hung for murder once, and that was after fining the corpse for carrying a concealed weapon.

Dan