FIRST ADVISERS HAVE BEEN KILLED

Peter Logerfo's "Wait until first adviser is killed" (Your Views,
Sept. 24) makes some good points. But the headline, abridged from a
longer statement in the letter, conveys a misconception.

In July 1999, five American soldiers died while on interdiction duty
over the skies of Colombia. The pilot, Capt. Jennifer Odom, and her
crew, Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Moore, Pfc. Bruce Cluff, Capt. Jose
Santiago, and Pfc. Ray Krueger, all died when their plane, a high-tech
DeHavilland RC-7, crashed or was shot down in southern Colombia.

Interestingly enough, Capt. Odom's commander in Colombia was Col. James
Hiett. Hiett and his wife were involved with smuggling cocaine and
laundering drug money and were arrested five months after the crash.

For some reason these deaths are rarely mentioned in the media when
Colombia is discussed and certainly never mentioned by Al Gore or
George W. Bush. Of course, they won't even discuss Colombia or the war
on (some) drugs. Maybe the press should ask them before the elections
in November.