
The Code: A declassified hostage rescue story (2015) - wglb
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/7/7483235/the-code-colombian-army-morsecode-hostages
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cyberferret
An interesting corollary to this story is the rescue of 'Bat 21' [1] - where a
downed high ranking aviator in the Vietnam war was guided out of a danger spot
and to eventual rescue using various golf course holes as his map paths.

The pilot (Lt. Col. Hambleton) was a very keen golfer, and had played hundreds
of courses and knew the direction, bends and distances to holes from memory.
The O2 controller aircraft overhead would relay instructions such as "Pebble
Beach 7th hole..." etc. to him and Hambleton knew the direction, range and
turns he had to make to get to his next waypoint. I doubt any Viet Cong out
there could second guess the radio transmissions which they could easily
intercept.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Bat_21_Bravo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Bat_21_Bravo)

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achamayou
With search engines and GPS-mapped courses, this might work a lot less well
these days.

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Stratoscope
I'm pretty good with Morse code, or at least used to be - I could copy 30-35
words per minute back in the day. But I had a heck of a time "reading" the
code in this song, even at the 20 words per minute the article mentioned.

Maybe it threw me off seeing the English translation of the coded message in
the article: "19 people rescued. You are next. Don’t lose hope." Would have
been nice if they had included the original Spanish as well!

Must confess I even had trouble copying the "19" at the beginning. Maybe that
was spelled out in Spanish?

~~~
fapjacks
Yeah, combined with what are surely some of the least favorable listening
conditions ever... Never underestimate your hostages or prisoners (or their
time), I guess.

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zdean
From 2 years ago...

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8852772](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8852772)

I personally really dislike when online stories lack a date of publishing.

~~~
sverige
I'm glad it was reposted, missed it the first time. I know Morse code (old
school ham operator), and it seemed really obvious to me especially after
reading the article, but I can also see how it wouldn't be obvious if you
didn't know Morse.

