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Still Mum on Bond

Nov. 14, 2006

The Air Force specifically declined yesterday to discuss the circumstances surrounding the death of Lt. Gen. Robert Bond, who was killed on April 26, 1984 in the crash of an aircraft the service has declined to identify. Although rumors were rampant at the time that Bond, then vice commander of Air Force Systems Command, had been killed testing a stealth aircraft prototype, USAF officials privately confirmed later that the aircraft was actually a MiG-23. The Air Force yesterday declined to discuss the 6513th Test Squadron, a shadowy unit known as the “Red Hats,” which presumably had a similar mission to the 4477th Red Eagles.

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