Re: Friday Humor (?)

[Chris Burke <cburke -at- CLARK -dot- NET>]

>> This is the transcript of an ACTUAL radio conversation of a US naval ship
>> with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.

This is a cute story, but likely false. It's an urban legend.

According to "The Urban Legends Reference Pages"
<http://snopes.simplenet.com/>:

>Claim:   In 1995 an embarrassing conversation between a lighthouse and an
>aircraft
>           was recorded by the Chief of Naval Operations, the transcript
>of which leaked out
>           to the general public.
>
>       Status:   False.
>
>       The story of the self-important aircraft carrier getting its
>well-earned comeuppance
>       at the hands of a plain-speaking lighthouse has been making the
>rounds on the Net
>       since early 1996. Most writeups purport to be transcripts of a 1995
>conversation
>       between a ship and a lighthouse as documented by Chief of Naval
>Operations.
>
>       It ain't true. Not only does the Navy deny it, the anecdote shows
>up in a 1992
>       collection of jokes and tall tales. Worse, it appeared in Stephen
>Covey's 1989 The
>       Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, and he got it from a 1987
>issue of
>       Proceedings, a publication of the U.S. Naval Institute.

And even the Navy has a page on this:
<http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/questions/litehuse.html>

Happy debunking,
-- Chris