CJC: OK... Pat, see if we can make ah... copies of...
VL: (breaking in) Well, I mean, I don't care if you have those because the pilot told me that...
BC: (breaking in) Well I do... 'cause that one's mine.
VL: to BC No... what I'm talking about is I don't care if he has a copy.
BC: Oh.... no I don't mind him having a copy.
CJC: OK... no, I'm going to give it back. VL: But... ah... ah... he told me that and when I called this certain person... and uh... he said, try to get his autograph... and uh... when I said... look... the way I done it, I said well Lord be Hallelujah, somebody has really... up and... really somebody that, that really knew something was up there, you know, and he says: "what you mean?". And I said because we were the ones that were hurt that night. And then when this guy called, well he had just heard about it, he didn't...
(break in recording)
CTD: What does your husband do
VL: He works at Richmond Tank Company at Shelby
CTD: What's his job, what... ?
VL: He's a... um... he runs a... uh, uh, uh, now wait now, let me... um... (nervous laugh)... anyway...
VL: He did do brake work, and now they got him where ah, he's old enough where he just walks around a running the tests's on all the cars, they call it some kind of tests, you know, where they test the brakes, and if they any leaks, well then he tells somebody where its happening.
CTD: Does he have some type of medical insurance at all?
VL: Yes sir, but you can't get no doctor to help you get into the hospital or nothing.
CTD: But you did have some type of medical insurance.
VL: Oh, yes sir.
CTD: What about you? Did you work anyplace?
BC: I have Medicare.
CTD: OK. Did you work at that time anyplace?
BC: No, no I wasn't... the reason we was just out tooling around.
CTD: Are you retired, or ... ?
BC: No, I'm not retired, I'm just not able to go back to work.
VL: Well, she did have her own business.
BC: I had, well James did, I didn't, and I got a divorce.
CTD: OK, have you just gotten a divorce when this happened?
BC: Right.
CTD: 'Bout how long ago?
BC: Well, I had filed for it in January, or February, and I had gotten it in, what, July or August.
CJC: 1980?
BC: Yes... it was about six - seven months, when I got it.
CTD: And you got the business that you... you and your husband had?
BC: Closed it up.
CTD: You closed it up... what kind of business was it?
BC: It was a restaurant and a grocery store... couldn't make no money (nervous laugh).
CL: Can we go for ice cream?
CJC: OK, now I asked you earlier, uh... you came here because Senator Benson had recommended that you come here.
BC:Yes.
CJC: Is there anything in particular you hope to gain by coming and talking with um... us in the Air Force, to people in the Air Force?
BC:(emphatically) Sure! That's the main purpose we're here.
CJC: Alright, would you... this is again for you to tell me... why don't you tell me what you hope to gain, Ms. Cash.
BC:Well, I hope to find out what the object was, and what the purpose of it was, being there on the road at the time, and God forbid I don't ever want anything to happen to any of my family or my friends, even to you or your family, even to an animal to what I've had to go through. It would satisfy my mind to find out what it was and what it was doing there. I believe that our federal government... we've GOT to have secrets, let's face it, in a very severe time like we are going through right now...
BC: Who's supposed to protect us?
...but things that hurt the American people, then I think it's time they should be stopped.
CJC: OK, Ms. Landrum, what is your hopes or aspirations with coming and talking with us today?
BC: Well, that's what I'm hoping for, there has to be an answer somewhere, you know?... CL: Right.
VL:... And what better place is it than a part of the government, because they're supposed to protect us anyway, right? Because my husband went over there and fought for two and a half years... he got two purple hearts out of the deal, and if you're not protected, what did he go over there for?
continued