Word: starkly
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...Brindel ordered a radio operator to flash a message: "Unknown aircraft. This is U.S. Navy warship on your 078 ((the Stark's bearing relative to the Mirage)) for twelve miles. Request you identify yourself. Over...
...message was sent in English, the internationally recognized language for such communications, and on a radio frequency that military aircraft are expected to monitor. There was no response. The Iraqi fighter was still closing in on the Stark. The ship sent a more demanding message 36 seconds after the first: "Unknown aircraft. This is U.S. Navy warship on your 076 for eleven miles. Identify yourself and state your intentions. Over...
Again, there was no answer. From that distance, the pilot might have been able to see the Stark's running lights...
Twenty thousand feet overhead, the AWACS crew had noted the Iraqi jet's search radar sweeping the Stark. But the airborne observers too failed to detect any evidence that the frigate had been targeted. At 10:10 p.m., however, the AWACS crew was startled to see the fighter suddenly bank sharply to the south, then circle tightly and dart northward toward its home base...
Both the AWACS spotters and those on the Stark had missed the most ominous sign of all: just before its twisting turns, the Mirage had released one of its Exocet missiles. Within seconds it launched another. Traveling at more ) than 500 m.p.h., the initial warhead would reach the Stark in one minute...