38. All thiry-one Americans were killed.

40. Middle East

42. Just before sundown on 17 May, 1987, an Iraqi pilot in an F-1 Mirage jet headed down the Gulf, scanning his instruments for oil tankers. In the darkened combat information center of the U.S. Navy guided missile frigate USS Stark (FFG 31), an operations specialist noted the Mirage's blip on his screen: track number 2202, range two hundred miles, headed inbound. The jet was pointed past the ship, four miles off the port beam. The sailor passed the word to his skipper. At two minutes after 9 p.m., the Mirage locked its Cyrano-IV fire-control radar onto the Stark. The frigate's instruments lit up in warning. A sailor asked permission to send a standard "back off" message to the Iraqi pilot. "No, wait," came the reply. At 9:05, the Mirage banked left, toward the warship. At just over 22 miles' distance, the pilot launched his first Exocet, a sea-skimming, ship killing missile. The weapon leveled out a dozen feet above the waves, accelerated to nearly the speed of sound, and turned on its radar-homing seeker. Twenty seconds later, another Exocet dropped from a wing and lit off toward the Stark. The first missile punched through the hull near the port bridge wing, eight feet above the waterline. It bored a flaming hole through berthing spaces, the post office, and the ship's store, spewing rocket propellant along its path. Burning at 3,500 degrees, the weapon ground to a halt in a corner of the chiefs' quarters, and failed to explode. The second missile, which hit five feet farther forward, detonated as designed. The fired burned for almost a day, incinerating the crew's quarters, the radar room, and the combat information center. About one-quarter of the crew was incapacitated in the attack. Twenty-nine were killed immediately; eight more died later

58. Quiz

59.  1.