going to get used to that and it's going to be difficult because they still have these soldiers who are still sitting there in crimea who they are going to presumably have to evacuate at some point. >> thanks very much for joining us. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern, a special two-hour "situation room." "newsroom" right now starts with brooke baldwin. wolf blitzer, as always, thank you. great to be with you. i'm brooke baldwin. news just into cnn, police have not found anything suspicious inside the homes of those flight 370 pilots. you know they've been searching, specifically that one pilot's at-home flight simulator. nothing nefarious, according to our sources. but we do have something concrete to tell you about right now. new radar evidence to bolster the belief that flight 370 did, in fact, change course. this is the left turn we have been talking about and showing you on all these animations for days and days now. a reminder. at 2:15 a.m., the plane is last

detected by malaysian military radar. hundreds of miles off course to the west and the malacca strait. now fast forward to a week later, we finally have another country confirming this radical change in route. the royal thai air force now says it too tracked that boeing 777 through normal channels through roughly 40 minutes after takeoff at 1:22 a.m. when it vanished. six minutes later, 1:28 a.m., the same thai military radar detected an unknown plane heading in the opposite direction. so that new information also gives more weight to the new information. just confirmed by cnn, which suggests that flight 370's path was deliberately altered through the flight computer, making it likely that someone in the cockpit programmed flight 370 to turn west.

that sharp left turn. but the thing is, this is the big thing, no one knows exactly who entered the new coordinates or when or why. so the questions now, of course, was it a pre-planned hijacking move? could it have simply been a response to some kind of mechanical emergency onboard this flight? so we are dedicating the next two hours to digging into all of this for you and we begin with breaking news into the investigation and that flight simulator used by one of the pilots. let's go straight to cnn's evan perez, who is breaking this news for us. you have talked to your sources, and what are they learning about this simulator that this guy had in his home? >> brooke, one of the things that they've been wondering is whether or not there was an indication of perhaps a practice run on the simulator of this westward turn that we've been showing on air. and what i'm told is the malaysians have shared this information with investigators from britain, from the u.s., from france who are on the

ground, trying to decipher everything that they've got. and so far, they found no indication that any of this -- of any kind of practice run or anything to indicate that this was pre-planned. perhaps by the captain who is the one that had this flight simulator on his computer. they see his computers, looked at e-mail traffic, looked at everything that is on those computers and they've come up with absolutely nothing to indicate that there was anything nefarious being planned here. now, they've also gone through and checked any of the traffic discussions that the pilots had with air traffic control. and they've listened to those recordings. and then again, they've looked and they found nothing to indicate that there was something amiss inside the cockpit. so again, it brings us back to the mystery, what exactly was happening inside the cockpit and who did this? >> evan perez with new information.

thank you. so maybe mechanical. that's a big maybe. we don't know a lot right now. investigators say whoever did fly that plane off course for hours appeared to know what they were doing, but so far there has been no evidence to tie the pilot and this first officer to its disappearance. cnn spoke to a retired malaysian airlines pilot and a friend of the pile on that missing pilot who is certain human interference is to blame. >> i know for sure -- i flew this thing. how many times. >> and so what do you think happened, being someone who's been behind the controls of this plane? >> very strange. the lack of communication is the one that's really, really -- the pilots not communicating there was an emergency. i think from the second or third day, i've already come to my own private conclusion that there must be some form of unlawful human interference. it could be anyone on the airplane. >> if you're convinced it's not pilot, then does your attention

turn to the co-pilot? >> well, like i said, unlawful human interference. a human is involved. >> we now know that the aircraft's first turn to the west was carried out through a computer system, one that was most likely programmed by someone in the cockpit. so, joining me now, a commercial pilot and former federal prosecutor. also the managing partner for airline weekly. and captain timothy taylor, president of tiburon and under water experts. fred, to you here, because you've just heard the news that there was nothing nefarious with this flight simulator, according to our sources. but let's get to the bit about the computer, that we know that eight key strokes were made. forgive me, i don't know if that's even the right way of explaining this. what do you make of the fact -- what are reasons why a pilot would absolutely sort of change course?

>> well, the technical term is push the buttons. >> thank you. >> the answer to your question is this. you could have changed course because there was an electrical problem with the airplane, you wanted to divert to another field. the other reason to change course is because you want to take the airplane someplace. and what has struck me about this thing from the get-go is that from the very beginning, it was clear to me that those were in command of this aircraft did not want people to know where they were going. the transponders go off. the airplane makes wild fluctuations in altitude. and quite frankly, until this airplane is found, we really don't have the luxury now of assuming that it's a mechanical problem. we need to start preparing for something a little more nefarious. >> i think they are preparing for x, y, and z. but back to your highly technical term of pushing a button, is it possible someone could have pushed that button not from the plane, but from elsewhere? >> no. absolutely not. the onboard flight data -- this airplane has a flight director system that's down between the

pilots. if you've ever looked at them, they've got more buttons than you could ever possibly imagine and it really takes a lot of time. when these guys transition to this airplane, they spend an infinite amount of time learning the avionics. it's very sophisticated and complicated. >> so had to be on the plane. what about the news from the thai government that they admitted they tracked the flight, got this blip of this unknown flight that maybe could be flight 370. we don't know. my question and everyone else's question is why are we just now coming into this knowledge? 11 days later. >> well, remember, first of all, that we're dealing with an aircraft that -- the person at the controls was trying not to be seen. so different from most other commercial flights. the whole point of a transponder is it's saying here, i'm malaysia airlines flight 370, here's the altitude on that. we didn't have that here. so certainly every country along the potential flight path is going back through its tapes through military radar as well saying what might have been this aircraft. what we heard from thailand is

basically corroborating, very generally, at least, what we've been hearing. the problem is what happened next, and as you know, the possibilities as far as where this plane is, even as we become perhaps a little more comfortable with the idea that it was, in fact, foul play, we know less than ever about where this plane ended up. >> there was a pretty amazing theory that, you know, it's very simple, that we'll get to in just a minute because i'm really curious to hear you guys talk about the pocket this could have just been a fire. we'll get to that in a minute. captain timothy taylor. "the washington post" quoted this aviation expert by the name of ron carr. he basically threw out -- he said the way the plane hit the water, if it hit the water, could determine if we ever find the plane. so he threw out these three scenarios. scenario one, if the plane came in as though landing, it would float and sink, so it would be really huge under water which would be great for sonars to try to find it. two, it could come down really hard into the ocean, bursting into many pieces and you would

have debris potentially floating, which thus far we don't have. three, this notion that the plane could have come in at this very steep trajectory, steep slope and it would have accordioned maybe upon impact, therefore it would be even smaller to find, right place, right time for these search crews. so with those three possibilities, how would that even impact all these crews in the waters right now? >> well, i would believe that the debris field would be a much easier way to find this plane, if there was a debris field. when the french airliner went down, they found bodies, they found seats, they found everything. that narrowed down the search. and still that took two years to find. if it did land like the plane on the hudson and sink -- >> the miracle landing. >> the few tiny debris left, the fuel would have dissipated by now after over a week, ten days, or close to dissipated. so it is a lump sum under the water, but there's no clue found

yet on where to look. and if you don't know where to start, it's a big ocean. i can give you numbers on what it would take to find that, but 12 square miles a day with one machine, and you get six million square miles of indian ocean, it's -- you're getting into 4,000 years with one machine. >> the numbers are overwhelming. >> staggering. >> it's staggering. fred, before we go to break -- and i'm going to ask almost all of you to stick around, but you're watching the coverage, reading like the rest of us. what's your one question here, priority number one? >> my one question is why is it that this aircraft, which is not small, was not tracked more diligently and more detailed on radar? it just boggled my mind that an 800,000 plane airplane has just vaporized. >> why no more evidence on the radar. stand by, because coming up next. i alluded to this a minute ago.

one expert is throwing out this stunningly simple theory, the left turn theory, he's calling it. the fact that the pilot's first instinct was just to find a runway. because there was a fire. that's it. this expert is pinpointing an exact spot. we'll break that down for you. chad myers will join us to show all of us what he's talking about. also, we have heard so much about the captain on this flight 370. but a friend of the co-pilot is talking to cnn, coming to his defense. hear his thoughts coming up. special coverage continues right after this. [ male announcer ] this is jim.

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disappearance of flight 370. let me bring back our guests, plus one here. commercial pilot and former federal prosecutor. seth kaplan, managing partner for airline weekly. and christine denison. welcome back to all of you, and fred, let me begin with you. this is a theory -- i read about this first thing this morning from this 20-year veteran pilot originally posted on google plus. this is a fascinating read. highly recommended for people who are following this as closely as we are. so he suggests this theory startlingly simple. he suggests there was a fire. and that this pilot onboard tried to find the nearest airport that this large 777 could land. he explains that this dramatic left turn toward this airport, it was over water, no obstacles. this is where he says he believes this guy was going. and he goes further to explain the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect

sense in a fire. how does that, fred -- so simple. how does that theory sit with you? >> well, i actually read that closely this morning because i was fascinating by his theory. let me tell you first and foremost, when you're a pilot and you have a fire onboard an aircraft, his premise is that there was a fire. first thing you do -- you don't try to get to the airport. you need to put the airplane on the ground as soon as possible. the jet crash in miami, that pilot, she tried to make it back to miami and crashed in the everglades because the fire burned so quickly. there was an md-11 crash in halifax, nova scotia. that airplane crashed because the pilots were trying to make it to an airport. actually trying to dump fuel. you're better off putting that airplane in one piece actually in the ocean than trying to get to a fire. the second thing about what he says -- >> hang on, let me stop you. you're saying better off to put the plane, instead of land it on land, you're saying you want to put it in water? >> if that airplane is on fire, you have no idea how long it's

going to be before the fire burns through the flight control services and makes the airplane completely uncontrollable. that's the problem. >> forgive me for cutting you off. i'm no pilot. i'm just trying to wrap my head around what you said. that's number one. number two was what? >> well, it's hard to wrap your head around. you think it's hard to wrap your head around for you. as a pilot, conditioning yourself that there's a fire, you're not going to try and go to an airport. the second one is that if there was a fire, this airplane actually flew over some waypoints, some spots in the sky. that indicates to me that there was a working auto pilot onboard the airplane, because those are things that happened. if he had a working autopilot, if the airplane was flying that kind of tracks, that would not be consistent with the fire. >> his explanation is the reason why this plane would have been on auto pilot, maybe everyone was discombobulated. maybe everyone was passed out because of the smoke and the fire was that huge and it continued until it ultimately crashed. you don't necessarily buy that.

>> right, if there's a fire and electrical failure, you don't have autopilot. that runs on electricity. >> i gotcha. just when you think you read something that makes sense. fred, i'm going to come back to you. >> it made great sense to me. i thought it was a nice theory. >> there are questions about flying for several more hours, as we were discussing. suggests that the crew could have become overcome by smoke. what do you make of this possible theory? >> well, the problem with that -- and how that doesn't exactly square with pilot sabotage, for example. this possibility that one of the pilots or both did something is that that would be very inconsistent with some of the other cases we've seen over the years of pilot sabotage. the way that usually works, and an egypt crash back in 1999, silk air, one pilot locks the other out of the cockpit and crashes the plane rather quickly. and so quite honestly, although

the simplest explanation right now might be pilot sabotage, and perhaps just one of the pilots, if in fact that happens -- >> wouldn't the simplest just be there's a fire onboard? >> the problem is that's very much a devil's advocate position. to be perfectly clear, we're missing a lot of data points here. so you can construct a case for lots of different points. however, the transponder being seemingly turned off, true, that we don't know that a person did that. just all of these appearances, that whoever was in control, and rather clearly somebody seemed to be in some control of this plane, was not trying to make themselves seen. was not sending out distress signals. fred earlier talked about air france 447. in that case, we had a pilot sending out distress signals in the middle of all these terrible things that were happening. so it's very much the devil's advocate argument at this point. >> okay. i tell you, it's frustrating sitting here trying to navigate

through all of this and listening to it all and trying to make sense, because it's quite honestly impossible. i think christine, to you, the next if. that's all this is. if -- and i know your expertise is in rugged terrain. you think it's possible the plane may have landed or maybe crashed in the jungle or in other conditions. again, if that happened, how does one survive? >> agreed. it's all really if at this point. we just don't know. and every day, there seems to be a new twist to it or a new story. possibility. i agree with these gentlemen in the sense that if you have a landing or a fire, or anything that caused this plane to come down, not over water, but in land or on land, rather, you have very rugged terrain following the trajectory that it seems to be showing, which would be going over burma, possibly towards nepal. you've got very different elevations, you've got burma, which is all jungle.

so you've got very difficult terrain to try and really have -- if you're doing a search for it, you're going to have a lot of time that has to be spent really looking through jungle. and in rain forest and jungle, you've got different levels. there are different tree levels under the canopy. so you've got trees that start at 15 feet and go up to 120 feet. so it's very dense. that would make looking for this aircraft or survivors very difficult. that would be sort of stage one. >> looking for them, not to mention being the survivor yourself in these various locales and surviving all these now 12 days. >> the conditions are very hard. and very humid. high humidity, high heat in the jungle, if, in fact, this would be one of the possibilities. there isn't that much time. you've got dehydration. a lot of the natural elements that people are already -- whatever condition they're in, if it was a crash landing or any kind of landing, it's just going

to be very hard. not impossible, just very difficult. >> we just don't know, do we? christine denison. i really appreciate all three of you for joining me. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> coming up, these four words we keep repeating. all right, good night. three words. those were the last words of the pilot of flight 370. his co-pilot speaks out. he says why it was an honor to live next to the co-pilot. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

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people who knew the co-pilot of malaysia flight 370 are coming to his defense.

the next door neighbor said he did not believe hamid would play a part in the plane's disappearance whatsoever. kate baldwin has more. >> the family of flight 370's co-pilot reclusive since the crush of media attention flooded their home on saturday. their relative's now infamous last words from the cockpit, "all right, goodnight," are still shrouded in mystery. his reflection in the console just weeks before the malaysia airlines flight went missing. >> how do you know the family? >> i know this family around five years. >> along the streets, the co-pilot's neighbor, a taxi driver, says he doesn't believe the 27-year-old co-pilot would play a role in the flight's disappearance. he is a pilot, and this is a

respected career in malaysia, he said. so it is an honor to have a neighbor like this. the taxi driver describes the co-pilot as ambitious, someone who loved sports cars. after he became a pilot, he bought a gti golf, and then he bought a bmw. he was a big fan of cars, and i don't think he would do something crazy, he said. the neighbor says the hammed my f family kept to themselves, saying he also view the father as "someone important," but he can't forget the most recent conversation he had with his neighbor, when he said simply, "my son is lost." >> when the father talked to you, how did he seem? how did he act? he was clearly worried, but he was as a muslim, he seemed calm and able to accept it, the driver said. his father asked me to pray for him, pray for the son to be found, pray for the plane to be found, and i assured him that his son will be fine and they will find the plane.

the media intrusion now surrounding the community. the co-pilot's next door neighbor says the constant attention has forced his own wife and two children to leave. when i asked the co-pilot's next door neighbor what he thought of the government's response to this whole crisis, he criticized the government, saying the government's been slow to respond, that the government is inexperienced, but he noticed that this is an unprecedented crisis they have on their hands. >> all right, kate, thank you. coming up next, more on this so called left turn theory. why a pilot would make such a sharp left turn. was he trying to find an airplane? we have some maps to show whether this even makes sense. plus, is it possible the computer onboard this plane can be interfered with remotely? in other words, a cyber attack? we're answering that question for you coming up. the secret is out. hydration is in. [ female announcer ] only aveeno daily moisturizing lotion has an active naturals oat formula that creates a moisture reserve

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let's dive into this sharp left turn the plane took. for one theory, it's a point of stunning simplicity. this one expert, we were just talking about this a few minutes ago. this veteran pilot believes there was a fire on the plane. he suggests that this left turn shows that the pilot on this flight, who by the way had something like 18,000 flying

hours under his belt, did what experienced aviators do, aim for an airport. in in article originally on google plus, chris goodfellow writes this. "we old pilots were always drilled to always know the closest pile of safe harbor while in cruise. airports behind us, airports abeam us, and airports ahead of us, always in our head. always. because if something happens, you don't want to be thinking, what are you going to do? you already know what you're going to do. instinctively when i saw that left turn with a direct heading, i knew he was heading for an airport." and goodfellow believes 370 was headed for this airport in malaysia with this 13,000-foot runway. joining me now, bill savage, pilot who has flown these 777s. bill, welcome to you. and chad myers joining me here in studio. bill, i want to walk through

some of these points this gentleman makes in this piece. but first, chad, can you just show me a map and tell me exactly how this all fits together? >> let's walk right over here. i'll show you what's going on. left kuala lumpur, it got up here a little bit farther to the north right there. decided that this thing was going to go left. and it did go left. and it went across the island and over that island. at least that was the theory. and that's the airport you just showed right there. the other theory here -- because i'm trying to put two good theories together that kind of match up. because we don't have anything. we can't get the arc to work. we can't get eyewitnesss to work. but we found something this morning a little bit interesting. there are reports that way over here in the maldives, someone -- actually more than one, saw a low-flying white plane with red stripes that morning, and if that thing stayed on auto pilot, flew over that island that you just showed, guess where it would have ended up 1,800 miles later. right over the maldives right there. and yes, there are places to put

that plane down on land in the maldives. not many. they have very little land and a lot of water. you go down here a little bit farther, you will find that island right there. that is a 1.6-mile-long runway and not too many people on that island either. >> bill, what do you think? simple as a fire and that he wanted to find a place to put this bird down? >> well, i agree with the premise. i'm not convinced that there's any indication there was a fire onboard. with a mere two button push on the flight management system computer, it brings up the five closest alternate airports from your present position that are suitable to land an aircraft of that size. and i agree we are trained to pick the closest suitable airport in an emergency, and head for that position to put the airplane on the ground, particularly in a fire.

but flying all the way to the maldives at low level, looking for a runway is as plausible as anything else i've heard so far this week. >> what is it the pilots say? you say aviate, navigate and lastly, communicate. that's the other question. just go with me on this theory from this 20-year pilot veteran who wrote this piece. he says, you know, listen, there are reasons, in the case of the it were some sort of electrical fire. you're throwing off all the buses, that was the word he used. flipping them all back on to determine where the origin of the fire would be, correct? >> well, that's a very prolonged event to attack the problem with. you'd be in checklists doing that. you would have, a, been using your transponder to squawk an

emergency code. you would be in communication with air traffic control. there wouldn't be silence. and i'm not at all comfortable with the signoff of the last transmission you did hear. i would want to hear the 20 minutes before that, of the whole conversation, and then apply that last voice to the ongoing air traffic control transmissions that have been going back and forth. as i stated yesterday, asians generally don't use that short clip vernacular of "all right, goodnight." the asians are very procedurally correct and they would have signed off with their airline call sign, and in addition to the term heavy, meaning that it's a 777. >> so are you saying it doesn't make sense that they said "all right, goodnight"? because every other pilot i've talked to said no big deal. >> well, americans would say that, particularly in the middle of the night. if you had been having

conversation with that controller and you recognize one another's voices. you might clip it. but that sounds to me like they gave him an additional instruction, for example. we've lost your transponder, squawk 5570 and ident, in order to establish that transponder again on their radar screen. that might elicit a response like all right, good night, and he would do that while he transtran transitioned over to the next air traffic control center. i'm not at all comfortable with this clipped exit with nothing in front of it. you need to listen to the whole tape for the flight from start to finish to get a context. >> which we don't have. do me a favor and stick around with me. because we're going to take some questions. there are a lot of viewer questions. a lot of questions among us. exactly what happened here. questions like why don't those so called black boxes have gps

locator technology. that's just one example. stay with me. we'll be right back. want to give your family more vitamins, omega 3s,

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comcastnbcuniversal. we're staying on this mystery story. where the heck is this plane? a lot of you are incredibly engaged. we'll continue answering some viewer questions. let me bring in don lemon, who will be back tonight at 10:00 eastern. i know you took questions all hour long last night. don lemon and captain bill savage rejoining us. an incredible expert. wealth of knowledge here. so don lemon, take it away. >> yes. listen to captain bill, you're right. wealth of knowledge. very good stuff, brooke. you asked the pertinent question. where the heck is this plane? that's what everybody wants to know. but they also have side questions. like this one from ryan. why don't black boxes have a gps so they can be tracked in case a

plane goes down? captain? >> that's just not technology that was developed for the individual box itself. so there are emergency locator transmitters onboard this aircraft, two of them. those would be putting out the electronic signals for search and rescue folks. as we found in the air france example, they lasted over two years. minimally to 30 days. there is plenty of equipment that would identify this airplane in the water or jungle, even if there was a horrific impact, there would be traceable evidence to find that aircraft. hearing nothing is -- >> so there is a gps-type device on it already. it's just not called a gps. is that what you're saying? >> no, sir, it's not gps at all. that's a satellite term. but it's a position locator.

but we use other boxes called an emergency locator transmitter, which is a radio. >> we've been talking about this as well, the possibility of remote interference. people were talking about a cyber attack. >> the computer. >> a cyber attack on the plane's computer. you're right, brooke. what about that, captain? >> very doubtful. they make sense of the aircraft and how terrific it is, which it is. the technology is not 15 to 20 years old. they're not susceptible to outside attack anyanyway. it doesn't have the ability to be penetrated externally. it's simply an internal computer that has to be managed and it has to be managed effectively. so i discount any outside

attack. >> because these, just to clarify, too, these are buttons that initially we have a destination beijing, and that there was a change with that on this computer. you had to be on the plane to hit that button eight times as is now reported, correct? >> i haven't heard that report. the button pushes are important. >> but only on the plane. >> yes. >> you'll find it interesting, what was your documentary, to track a killer? >> on a serial killer. >> yes. this is about eyewitnesss. and whether eyewitnesss are often right or wrong. i was discussing it with mary schiavo last night. and eyewitnesss when it comes to this particular case. it's an interesting question we'll answer tonight. >> we will look for you tonight on "the don lemon show." all of the questions answered at 10:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. bill savage, thank you so much.

we really appreciate you. coming up next, we're staying on the story. i mean, this all goes back for me, just thinking about these families. all the 239 souls onboard. just imagine what these families are going through. not just grief, but anger over the past now 12 days. holding out hope, some of them, that their loved ones are still alive. we'll talk to someone who has been through a loss. we asked people a question,

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families of missing passengers desperate for information erupted today in beijing at officials of malaysian airlines. among the most aggrieved, the parents only allowed to have one child under china's family planning restrictions. so some of these families now are vowing to launch a hunger strike to try to force malaysia to release more information. that woman's sign reads kwpt respe -- "respect life." ken, welcome to you. if i may, just watching these pictures and hearing more and more from some of these families, the word that comes to my mind is angry. how do you manage in the thick of this your anger with your sense of helplessness? >> i think the anger comes directly from the sense of helplessness. we don't know what's going on.

if there was a finality, if there was information, people could wrap their hearts and minds around and it begin that process. but that process can't begin with all the unknowns still around. so it's understandable that people are getting frustrated, angry. they feel overwhelmed about what's going on. >> hearing from one girlfriend, an american gentleman on this plane. she has this backpack. our correspondent interviewed her. she has a backpack. she is ready to roll, not only with her clothes, but her boyfriend's clothes on this plane. she says when she gets the call that he has been found. you have been through a loss with your daughter some 18 years ago. you know, your heart knows that feeling of uncertainty. how do you handle that? >> you know, all of us, if we think about it, have stood in a moment of utter terror, where we don't know where our child is. or where our loved one is for maybe ten seconds. maybe 30 seconds. maybe for an hour. and we feel that sense of

desperation. multiply that by about a million for all the loved ones who are at the epicenter of this tragedy. they are overwhelmed not knowing what to do, where to go, how to begin to hold this. and it's the nature of the beast that they don't know what to do. what they can begin to do i think is what many of them are doing, which is huddling up with one another and understanding that they are not alone in their feelings of desperation and it's very understandable that they're angry, that they're frustrated, and that they're brokenhearted at this point. >> that's the only bit of -- at least they have one another, they're not suffering by themselves. thank you so much. so many theories, but really it's about these families and getting answers for them. >> you know, brooke -- >> go ahead. >> it's a time where we pull together as families and rather than sitting in our helplessness, we can look into our own communities for people

who are suffering comparable losses. in other words, we, as we watch this unfold, and we all pray for a miracle and good things to unfold here. but as we watch it, we can look to our own communities with compassion and understand that there are people in our own communities who are suffering the same feeling of unknowingness, living lost grief, and who need our love and support. >> absolutely, ken. thank you for adding that. appreciate you. coming up here, we're going to continue along, because if the thai military spotted this missing jet, why are we just now learning about that? also ahead, the breaking news in the crisis in ukraine. a ukrainian officer reportedly killed in crimea. this is the first death since the standoff began. all of this as vladimir putin responds to president obama's threat. stay right here. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that.

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ukraine's defense ministry says one of its officers has been killed. another is in the hospital after an incident near a military base. the killing is on the very same day that russia's president declared crimea part of the russian federation. let's go straight there to cnn's international anchor michael holmes, who is in crimea. and michael, tell me more about this officer who's been killed. >> reporter: for the last couple of weeks, brooke, there has been various degrees of blockading of ukrainian military bases in crimea. it's generally been uneventful. but that changed a few hours ago. what you can call a fairly inconsequencial base. there is a base that deals with things like topography. what happened was some masked and armed men raided that base, went on to the base and somehow shooting erupted.

it was a warrant officer killed. also a captain was wounded. it resulted in the ukrainian government calling it a war crime and blaming russia for the death. we were out there and we did see a heavily armed man getting onboard a military truck. they were dressed in what appeared to be russian uniforms. they were well-armed. the ukrainian government also as a result of this has authorized its troops on bases in crimea to defend themselves with force if need be. very difficult situation for these soldiers on these bases. they are ukrainian, suddenly finding themselves in potentially a foreign country. it's a very dangerous situation. >> michael holmes in simferopol. michael, thank you. we continue on, top of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. some news into cnn as it pertains to this missing flight, because now we know the u.s. officials say they have reviewed

those cockpit conversations between that missing malaysia airlines flight 370 and the air traffic controllers. here's the news -- nothing suspicious. nothing suspicious. this comes as investigators say they too have found no dirt on the pilots of flight 370. we are also learned that a search of their homes, their e-mails, and even that at-home flight simulator that that pilot had, seen here, have turned up nothing suspicious. so, that said, the question, who reprogrammed this plane to go so far off course? a law enforcement official telling cnn that this plane's flight path was deliberately altered through the flight computer, making it almost certain that someone inside the cockpit with aviation knowledge programmed flight 370 to make that sharp left to go west. we keep showing you on the animation, follow the red line here. but we still cannot confirm who entered those new coordinates. or when they did it. or why they did it.

this theory, though, about the sharp left turn has been bolstered by thailand because a second country here confirming this radical change in the route. the royal thai air force now says it too tracked that boeing 777 through normal channels until roughly 40 minutes after takeoff, 1:22 a.m. when it, poof, vanished. six minutes later, 1:28 in the morning, that same thai military radar detected an unknown plane heading in the opposite direction. let's go straight to cnn international's andrew stevens, who is live for us in kuala lumpur. andrew, tell me more about the search of the pilot's home. nothing suspicious, they say. >> reporter: nothing suspicious. and a lot of people have been waiting for this news, brooke. we're getting this through unofficial sources. the malaysian police officially continue to say nothing at all.

that flight simulator was actually taken away on saturday afternoon, so we're now going into wednesday morning. this is the first time we've heard that there is nothing suspicious there. i want to talk also about that preprogramming of the flight, and for that sharp left turn. now, that was raised at a press conference yesterday with malaysian airlines chief executive. he said on the ground, flight 370 was actually programmed to go to beijing. he said anything could happen once the pilots get into the cockpit. at least on the ground, the coordinates were programmed in, but we don't actually know when. that's a vital clue. coming back to the pilots. as you say, nothing suspicious. this follows china saying that they've done background searches on the 153 chinese nationals. nothing suspicious there either. >> andrew, while i have you, i know that there is a new theory about what may have happened that you're hearing where you

are. tell me what that is. >> yeah, it's a lot of people talking about this here in kuala lumpur. it comes from a pilot. it's a simple theory almost, brooke. it ties in with just about everything we know so far. and that comes back to a catastrophic mechanical failure. probably in the form of a fire. perhaps even in the form of an underinflated front tire on takeoff. slow burn there. the cockpit fills with smoke. in the situation like that, the pilot mantra really is aviate, navigate, and then communicate. so the aviation was to keep the plane in the sky. navigate, turning west would have lined it up with the island on the western side of malaysia, which has a 13,000-foot runway. that would be the route they would plan to get to. they passed out before they could get there. before they passed out, they programmed the plane to turn in

that direction. they couldn't though, then carry it through. they passed out. the plane didn't get any instruction to land, so it just kept on flying. we do know that that plane was last seen in that direction, heading northwest, heading off and basically crashed when it ran out of fuel. that is a theory that really is gaining a lot of credibility, if you like here amongst aviation people, i think, because it does join a lot of dots and it does sort of take the wilder theories, the more sort of not fanciful, but the more sort of sophisticated, complicated, complex theories off the table. it was a fire. they were overcome by smoke. the plane continued to fly until it ran out of gas. >> we have been discussing that exact theory here, and i've had a lot of pilots shoo s shoot it. we'll keep talking about it. that really is the buzz in kuala lumpur. i appreciate you joining me.

let's bring in someone who knows a thing or two about flying. daniel rose, a pilot and aviation attorney and also cnn aviation correspondent richard quest. so, all right, guys, welcome back to the program here. we'll get to this fire theory in a minute. on the news we're hearing, there was nothing suspicious on the at-home simulator. nothing suspicious between the pilot and air traffic control. nothing suspicious in e-mails. your reaction? >> i think that's been the problem all along with this so called deliberate or hijacking type theory.so-called deliberat hijacking type theory. you have a captain, who's by all accounts a family man and well-respected, and an enthusiast about aviation. you wouldn't leave a simulator out in broad daylight if you were planning some kind of nefarious act like this.

on top of that, you don't have any sign of the aircraft. you don't have any communications from 139 passengers. you don't have any ransom demands. >> no one claiming responsibility. >> right. >> richard quest, you've been listening to all of this the past 12 days. now the nugget today we have is the thai government saying yes, they were tracking the flight. yes, it vanished off the radar. then they saw this blip of this unknown flight. could be 370. maybe not. why are we just now hearing about this on day 12? >> you're hearing about it on day 12 because everybody is going back to look at their information again. we are looking for definitive answers, when people are having to work with some very raw basic material. so yes, i'm sure the thai authorities looked at their radar and they've gone back and looked at it again and then they've checked it. and also, this doesn't really

hugely advance our sum of understanding. they may well have told the malaysians about this earlier in the week. it's just -- it's another nugget on the table. another piece of the jigsaw on the table. i've -- this interesting idea -- i mean, this chris goodfellow article about the fire. well, let's row back just a little bit and not put it down to a fire. because let's just say a mechanical issue. because once you start talking about a fire, that raises a whole other raft of other issues. but let's say a mechanical issue that overwhelms both the pilots and the plane and leads to its eventual demise. this has always been the most logical, basic aeronautical explanation for what has taken place. it has only one fundamental flaw. >> which is? >> and it is this. there were no messages.

no acast messages received warning about it. it is so designed that even if -- i mean, not literally, but even if the toilet fails, certainly if there's a fire in the wheel well and fire censors are going off, then acast would send out an emergency warning to the ground. and we know -- this is really significant, because we know this because this is what happened in air france 447. 24 messages were sent out before anybody else realized what was happening. now, arguably, acast was the first thing to be hit and therefore it failed and therefore other events followed. but still mechanical remains the number one reasonable option. >> okay. let me back up a step. what richard is referring to, chris goodfellow, 20-year veteran pilot wrote this theory, stunningly simple theory on google plus, which is now being passed and pinged among everyone globally. his notion is that it was a

fire. clearly, richard, i hear you loud and clear. you're saying maybe not a fire because that throws in a lot of other variables, but indeed mechanical. one, we knew that this plane flew. let's say it was mechanical. continued to fly for hours and hours. could it have continued to do so on auto pilot, right? >> right. and let's just begin there. auto pilot. does that work? >> sure, absolutely it works. >> even with a fire, let's say? >> even with a fire. and the thing about the fire is now you've opened up a kind of a random scenario of failures. it can explain any kind of sequence of failures because you don't really know where exactly it originated. and where it propagated. it depends how quickly it starts. it's very random and could be expeditious. i handled actually the legal claim arising out of the last

boeing in-flight fighter case in dubai. it was really incredible to see what systems failed, including the oxygen, including the flight control system. so it really just opens up a random possibility of explanations for this what seems to us confusing sequence of events. >> uh-huh. all these theories. conspiracies. it could have been something as simple as mechanical. gentlemen, i have to leave it, but thank you so much, as we continue digging and talking to our sources and trying to figure out where the heck this plane is. there's so much more coming up on the disappearance of this may -- flight 370. this man, he is a former malaysia airlines pilot. he used to fly the very plane that is now gone. he is also a friend of the missing pilot. and he has a very specific idea about what happened. also ahead, we'll talk about the flight's path. was it reprogrammed? cnn's martin savidge back in that flight simulator and he'll

show us exactly how someone could reprogram the path, and we'll ask him if it can be done from not within the cockpit, from elsewhere. that's coming up. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me,

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but, so far, there has been no evidence to tie the pilot and first officer to its disappearance. cnn spoke to a retired malaysia airlines pilot and friend of the missing pilot here who is certain human interference is to blame. >> i knew for sure, i flew this plane. >> and so what do you think happened, being someone who's been behind the controls of this plane? >> very, very strange. the lack of communication is the one that's really, really puzzling. the way the pilots could not communicate because there was an emergency. i've come to my own private conclusion that there must be some form of unlawful human interference. >> if you're convinced it's not the pilot, does your attention turn to the co-pilot? >> well, like i said, unlawful human interference says that the human is involved.

we start going down personally -- >> watch the full interview on "erin burnett out-front" 7:00 eastern on cnn. right now i want to take a minute to show you how someone would reprogram a flight. martin savidge is back in that simulator. so, martin, take it away. >> reporter: to so many of us who are just passengers, the whole cockpit is a land of magic and mysticism. so really, spending so much time up here has really been enlightening because i've learned so much. today let's focus on this thing. the flight management system. this is basically a gps system on steroids for an aircraft. think of how you program when you're going to go in your car to someplace. well, the airline does that, too. flight 370 did it. they were going from kuala lumpur to beijing. they would have before takeoff loaded in all the coordinates, all the information they need to make that flight into this flight computer. and then it would help the co-pilot and pilot, assist them on their path.

however, once in the air, it is possible to reprogram it and go a different way. you can show us just how simply that's done. >> yes, absolutely. if you look at the screen here, this magenta line is our flight path. this is our route to our destination. the apex of that triangle is us. all you need to do to change course is we type in the identifier from where we want to go. so in this case, this airport here. i'm going to type it in this little key pad here. then you just press a button up here and the computer asking you with this white line, are you sure you want to do that? are you sure you want to make that deviation? if you are sure, you press this button and the airplane will start to make a turn in that direction. >> you can see actually that it may look dramatic as far as the viewpoint from the cockpit here, but if you're a passenger sitting in the back, really this just seems like kind of a normal maneuver and you probably wouldn't have thought too much of it, even though right now

this airplane is veering dramatically off of the original course to take it to beijing. >> okay. pushing buttons -- i believe there were eight buttons pushed. so you guys just showed me that. mitchell, i have this follow-up for you. let's say under normal circumstances, could there have been any legitimate reason for anyone to, you know, punch those buttons, to have preprogrammed that flight before the left turn? or even before the plane took off? >> yeah. i mean, an operational flying, that happens quite a bit. what we call an alternate flight plan. so the first one doesn't pan out for whatever reason, you always have a backup. it's redundant. so that's for on the ground. in the air, we can make deviations. happens all the time. especially for takeoff and landing. make our route more efficient.

it happens a little bit more common in cruise for passenger sickness, mechanical reasons, weather, thunderstorms, stuff like that. so there's a myriad of reasons to do this. >> reporter: the problem is, brooke, we don't know whether someone tried to do it for devious reasons or whether this plane had an emergency and trying to get it back. >> that's exactly right. gentlemen, thank you so much again, inside that simulator, so helpful to see it in addition to talk about it. coming up next, new information from the government of thailand about what they saw on their radar moments after this plane lost contact. we will tell you how those new details could impact the flight's suspected path. plus, you have heard the theories abound about the plane flying maybe toward land. could the plane have actually landed in a remote area? could the passengers still be alive? you'll hear what a survival expert has to say about that coming up.

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thailand's air radar is now casting some new light as to what may have happened to the missing 777 and the 239 souls onboard. becoming another country to confirm this radical change in route. so cnn's tom foreman is live in washington to show us here. tom, let's just begin with your map. tell us what thailand's air force has now revealed. >> well, what they've revealed is something that at least fits into a part of this very confusing puzzle. we always lay the ground here before we get started so you

know exactly where we are. that's where the plane took off, flew up here, went off the coast and disappeared on the way up toward vietnam. since then, we've had all this conjecture, conflicting reports that reported all these different search areas, including this big one that came in from satellite data, suggesting that maybe there was a southern arc where it went. maybe a northern arc where it went. they don't really know. but the thailand information would fit in to the northern arc. let's go in a little bit closer and look at thailand's location here. if you talk about the search area up on the north there, you see that initial box north of kuala lumpur, that was the first search area. thailand is suggesting that they tracked a plane cutting back across the ismas there. that's the start of the malacca strait we've talked about so much. so they're talking about tracking something going back across that way. does that fit into the general profile of what we're talking

about? yes, it absolutely does. does it move us closer to where it is? i can't say it does that. it just seems to confirm some earlier suspicions. >> but how is it possible that this plane flew through such a potentially wide space without being picked up by radar? >> well, i think that's a really great question, because if you were to talk about the northern route, the idea that somehow after the folks in thailand picked it up on their radar, that it headed up north, that's not really likely. cambodia, myanmar, china, kyrgyzstan, uzbekistan, afghanistan, pakistan, india, kazakhstan. all these different places. yeah, there are holes in re dar -- in radar up there. maybe there are people who aren't keeping it in such good repair. maybe they don't want to talk about it. but it is somewhat inconceivable

that a plane this big would have flown through all of that and not been picked up by somebody else. >> so why is thailand just now releasing this information? >> thailand says that it initially released it through diplomatic channels, suggesting that the malaysians or somebody else had it ahead of time. we're just now learning about it publicly. but nonetheless, i think it still does raise a question, to what degree is everyone fully handing over information. because remember, some of the countries that just went along there have fairly big disagreements with their neighbors. and they're guarding their own national security, especially if some of them may believe privately in their upper echelons, we don't think this thing came our way. we don't think it ever made it up here over the him ileas. but if this makes us look at the new news out of thailand and say this is a very tiny piece of a

larger puzzle that's nowhere near being solved. >> yes, indeed. tom foreman. i'm so visual. i love seeing you in the map room. i really appreciate it. coming up next, more on our breaking news. officials announcing that nothing suspicious has been found in the homes of those pilots. so that's big today. we'll also be hearing details about the conversations between the cockpit, the air traffic control, what did they glean from that? we'll share that with you next. also, live pictures from inside the white house because -- this is exciting. in a matter of minutes, president obama will begin a unique medal of honor ceremony because he is honoring two dozen veterans who were discriminated against because of their race or religion. folks, this is the largest ceremony of its kind in decades and we will take it live. you won't want to miss this. ive. go! [ male announcer ] it's chaos out there. but the m-class sees in your blind spot... ♪ pulls you back into your lane... ♪

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bottom of the hour, you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. and this is special coverage of the search for flight 370. you know what? the pilots of flight 370, they're coming up clean. u.s. officials say they have gone over and over the communication between the pilots and radio control in those key moments before the flight vanished, and you know what their conclusion was? nothing suspicious. so this ties into what police have found after a search of the pilots' homes. they have gone through e-mail after e-mail. they have even, as we've been reporting, have seized and were investigating that at-home flight simulator. again, nothing suspicious. so, who reprogrammed the plane's cockpit computer to veer off course? we know now from a law enforcement official that that is likely the case.

we also know as we've been learning, that's a pretty tough thing to do. and you have to do it from the cockpit. so we can assume it was someone with aviation knowledge, but the when, the where, the how, the why all still a mystery, as i speak to you this hour. let's dive a little deeper into that sharp left plane that that plane took before disappearing. that's really also been a source of confusion. watch the red line as it takes that sharp left. one theory is really a point of stunning simplicity. one expert believes there was a fire on the plane, and he suggests that that left turn indicates that the pilot, who by the way has more than 18,000 hours in the air, did precisely what experienced aviators do. aim for an airport. so chad myers is back with me. because you're going to help us explain, just putting these pieces together from this one theory that's all over the internet now. so the facts that we have on the ground. >> i wish we could get one, two, three, four, five all to add up

to something. >> wouldn't that be nice? >> we get one plus two, that equals four. and then a third theory, that doesn't equal five. and then one here doesn't even go near the arcs. >> show us what we know. show me what we know. >> here's what this theory is talking about. it's all over twitter, all over google. the plane left kuala lumpur, it came up here, and it made a hard left turn. that was programmed into the computer. not just grabbed the yolk and turned the thing left or step on the rutter, like some yahoo who wouldn't know how to fly a plane would do. the person that did this turn, it is concluded, knew what they were doing. knew how to do that. now we go to step two. where were they going? the theory says there was a fire onboard. let's get it to the closest airport. that's a 13,000-foot runway right there. very good runway to make a heavy landing on. especially if you don't have full control. >> right along that line. so that would have made sense.

>> but guess what, brooke. guess if they weren't trying to go there, or if they were incapacitated and they couldn't land the plane, take it off auto pilot, guess where it goes. all the way over to here. where the same morning a low-flying white jumbo jet with red stripes was reported by many people being very low and very loud. in fact, so low, one person that saw it could count the doors on the airplane. and very loud means it still had power. >> chad, thank you. i know. i feel you loud and clear. thank you. we're going to come back to this. first, let's pause and go to the white house. because there's something pretty incredible that's happening here. because we're about to see president obama wririghting the wrongs of many years ago with these veterans. >> the strength and will which these men possessed, with courage, with humility that we may follow their path. that our spirit, eternal god,

that we may never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to become a model of what we advocate. as we pray and ask in your holy name, amen. >> amen. >> good afternoon, everybody. please be seated. welcome to the white house. the presentation of our nation's highest military decoration, the medal of honor, is always a special occasion. but today, it is truly historic. this is the single largest group of service members to be awarded the medal of honor since the second world war. and with several of these soldiers recognized for their valor during that war, this ceremony is 70 years in the

making. as one family member has said, this is long overdue. many of these families -- and i had a chance to meet all of them who are present here today, you know, they've known these stories of heroism for decades. still, they were pretty surprised when we called them to break the news about the medal of honor. some of them thought it was a prank. [ laughter ] some of them thought it was a scam. a few of them thought it might be some trick to get their credit card number. [ laughter ] when i called melvin morris, who we'll recognize in a moment for his actions in vietnam, his first reaction was, "oh, my god, what have i done"? [ laughter ] when i told him it was all good, the medal of honor, i could hear

through the phone, he almost passed out. you see, for their gallantry under fire, each of these soldiers were long ago recognized with the army's second-highest award. the distinguished service cross. but ask their fellow veterans, ask their families, and they'll tell you that their extraordinary deeds merited the highest recognition. and today, we have the chance to set the record straight. this ceremony reminds us of one of the enduring qualities that makes america great. that makes us exceptional. no nation is perfect. but here in america, we confront our imperfections and face a sometimes painful past. including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal.

so with each generation, we keep on striving to live up to our ideals of freedom and equality and to recognize the dignity and patriotism of every person, no matter who they are, what they look like, or how they pray. and that's why more than a decade ago, congressm mandated review to make sure the heroism of our veterans wasn't overlooked because of prejudice or discrimination. our military reviewed thousands of war records. they teamed up with veterans groups and museums to get this right. it was painstaking work made even harder because sometimes our service members felt as if they needed to change their last names to fit in. that tells a story about our past. but ultimately, after years of review, these two dozen soldiers, among them hispanic, african-american, and jewish veterans, were identified as having earned the medal of

honor. this is the length to which america will go to make sure everyone who serves urn our proud flag receives the thanks that they deserve. so, this is going to be a long ceremony. we're going to read all 24 citations. because every one is a story of bravery that deserves to be told. but first, i want to take just a few minutes to describe the americans behind these actions. the men these families know. the brilliant lives behind the smiling faces in those old photographs. and how they reflected all the beauty and diversity of the country that they served. they were americans by birth and americans by choice. immigrants, including one that was not yet even a citizen. they grew up in big city neighborhoods like brooklyn, rural communities like hooper, nebraska.

small towns like puerto rico. they loved to fish and play baseball. they were sons who made their parents proud and brothers who their siblings looked up to. they were so young. many in their early 20s. and when their country went to war, they answered the call. they put on the uniform and hugged their families goodbye. some of them hugged the wives and children that they'd never see again. they fought in the rocky hills of italy, the bloodstained beaches of france. the freezing mountains of korea. the human jungles of vietnam. their courage almost defies imagination. when you read the records of these individuals, it's unimaginable the valor that they displayed. running into bullets. charging machine gun nests and

climbing aboard tanks and taking them out. covering their comrades so they could make it to safety. holding back enemies. wave after wave. even when the combat was hand to hand. manning their posts, some to their very last breaths so that their comrades might live. of the 24 american soldier ws w honor today, ten never came home. one of them, corporal joe baldonado from the korean war is still missing, reminding us that as a nation we have a sacred obligation to keep working to give the families of our missing service members from all wars a full accounting of their loved ones. through their grief, the families of our fallen summon the strength to carry on. wives whose hearts ached for their husbands. sons and daughters who grew up without their dad. nieces and nephews and

grandchildren. and these families join us here today. and they know more than most that because others laid down their lives for us, we've been able to live our lives in freedom. pursue our dreams. so there's a legacy here, born of sacrifice. that includes a soldier's nephew, a kid from new york who grew up to become one of the great rock stars of all time, and who honors his uncle here today. it includes soldiers who came home and took different paths. some continuing to serve in uniform. some beginning new careers. some getting married and raising their kids. serving their communities. taking care of their fellow vets. these veterans lived out their lives in the country that they helped to defend and doing what they love, like william leaonar,

who at age 71 passed away in his backyard, sitting in his chair listening to his beloved yankees play on the radio. and that's where the story might have ended. but mitchell lidman, a friend of one of these soldiers and an army vet himself set out on a mission. he and his wife marilyn spent years writing letters and working with congress and our military to get this done. and so we thank all those who worked so hard for so long to bring us to this moment. especially marilyn and mitchell, now 83 years old, who i'd ask to stand so that we can all say thank you. [ applause ]

finally, of these 24 soldiers, three remain with us and have joined us here today. men who remind us that sometimes the heroes we seek are right in front of us. literally living right next door. most days, you can find jose rodello at his san antonio home. 76-year-old retiree who enjoys watching baseball on tv and working on his 1975 chevy pickup. and mowing the grass for his neighbors. joe is such a humble guy. jose is such a humble guy that he did not even mention the ceremony to his neighbors, who i think would be pretty shocked to turn on the news tonight and see that the guy who cuts their lawn is getting a medal of honor. today we remember how

32-year-old sergeant first class rodella fought through his wounds in vietnam and rallied his men during 18 hours of constant combat. most days you can find melvin morris at home in port st. john florida. 72 years old. a retired salesman and a greatgrandfather. you'll find him working on his boat, going fishing, reading the bible, spending time with his beautiful wife mary. married 53 years this month. y you're going to have to give me some tips. [ laughter ] we're not that far along yet. today we remember how 27-year-old staff sergeant morris, one of our nation's very first green berets. think about that. that's legendary. how staff sergeant morris recovered a fallen comrade in

vietnam, took out several enemy bunkers, and kept going even after he was shot three times. and on most days, you can find santiago eravia at home in san antonio. he's a 68-year-old retired postal worker. he's fixing up his house typically, tending to the garden, beginning on walks with his wife. or doing some push-ups to stay in shape. today we remember how 23-year-old specialist 4 eravia, under a hail of bullets in vietnam, gave first aid to his wounded comrades and single handedly destroyed four enemy bunkers. these are extraordinary americans. they are exemplary soldiers.

and so i want to begin by welcoming santiago eravia to stage for reading of the citation. >> specialist 4 santiago j.erevia, united states army. the president. the united states of america authorized by act of congress march 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of congress the medal of honor to specialist 4 santiago j.erevia, united states army, for conspicuous gallantry. he distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a radio telephone operator in

company c, first battalion air mobile, 501st infantry, 101st airborne division air mobile during search and clear mission near the republic of vietnam on may 21, 1969. after breaching an insurgent perimeter, specialist 4 erevia rendered first aid to several casualties and the rest of the platoon moved forward. as he was doing so, he came under intense hostile fire from four bunkers to his left front. although he could have taken cover with the rest of the element, he chose a retaliatory course of action. with heavy enemy fire directed at him, he moved in full view of the hostile gunners as he proceeded to call from one wounded man to another gathering ammunition. armed with two m-16 rifles and several hand grenades, he charged toward the enemy positions behind the suppressive fire of the two rifles. under very intense fire, he continued to advance on the insurgents until he was near the first bunker.

disregarding the enemy fire, he pulled the pin from a hand grenade and advanced on the bunker, leveling suppressive fire until he could drop the grenade into the bunker, mortally wounding the insurgent and destroying the fortification. without hesitation, he employed identical tactics as he proceeded the eliminate the next two enemy positions. with the destruction of the third bunker, specialist 4 erevia had exhausted his supply of hand grenades. he courageously charged forward behind the fire emitted by his m-16 rifles. arriving at the very edge of the bunker, he silenced the occupant within the fortification at point-blank range. through his heroic actions, the lives of the wounded were saved and the members of the company command post were relieved from a very precarious situation. his exemplary performance in the face of overwhelming danger was an inspiration to his entire company and contributed immeasurably to the success of the mission. specialist 4 erevia's

conspicuous gallantry, extraordinary heroism at the risk of his own life were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and the united states army. [ applause ]

>> sergeant first class melvin morris. sergeant first class melvin morris, above and beyond the call of duty while serving as commander of a strike force drawn from company d airborne, first special forces during combat operations against an armed enemy in the vicinity of republic of vietnam, september 17, 1969. morris' affiliated company was subsequently engaged by hostile force. staff sergeant morris learned by radio that a fellow team commander had been killed during an enemy bunker and reorganized

his men before advancing forward and splitting off with two men to recover the team commander's body. observing the maneuver, the hostile force concentrated its fire on staff sergeant morris' three-man element. after assisting the two wounded back towards force the line, he went towards enemy fire with only his men's suppressive fire as cover. continuously directed against him, staff sergeant morris destroyed the positions with hand grenades and continued his assault, ultimately eliminating four bunkers. upon reaching the bunker nearest the fallen team commander, morris retrieved his comrade and began the trek back to friendly lines. he was wounded three times as he struggled forward but ultimately succeeded in returning his

comrade. he went above the call and duty and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the united states army. [ applause ] master sergeant first class jose adella.

master sergeant distinguished himself above the call of duty attachment d-36 special forces air group airborne during combat operations against an armed enemy in the republic of vietnam in 1969. that afternoon, master sergeant rodela's battalion came under rocket and machine gunfire. master sergeant rodela began to place his men into defensive positions to prevent the enemy from overrunning the entire battalion, repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, master

sergeant rodela moved from position to position in assisting wounded and was himself wounded in the back and head by a b-40 rocket while recovering a wounded combat. alone, he assaulted and knocked out the b-40 rocket position before successfully returning to the battalion's perimeter. keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the united states army.

[ applause ] >> i just want to ask santiago and melvin to return to the stage, please. this is a remarkable moment. and as they come up, i'd like to recall -- as they take their positions, i'd like to recall the words of a poet, though much is taken, much abides, and though we are not now that strength in which an old day moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. when equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate but strong in will to strive to seek, to find, and not

to yield. santiago erevia, melvin morris, jose rodela in the thick of the fight all those years ago for your comrades and your country, you refused to yield. and on behalf of a grateful nation, we all want to thank you for inspiring us, then and now, with your strength, your will, and your heroic hearts. please give them a big round of applause. [ applause ]

>> gentlemen, thank you. please take your seats and we'll proceed with the rest of the ceremony. >> lenora accepting on behalf of her father, leonard l. alvarado.

specialist 4 leonard l. alvarado above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifle men with company d second battle general, first calvary division air mobile during combat operations against an armed enemy on august 12, 1969. on that day, specialist al have a dalvarado detected enemy movement and opened fire. despite his quick reaction, he and his comrades were pinned down by the special force that blocked the path to the trapped platoon. specialist 4 alvarado moved forward through the machine gunfire in order to engage the

troops. a grenade exploded nearby wounding him. retaliating immediately, an enemy barrage wounded him again. specialist 4 alvarado crawled forward to pull several comrades back within the perimeter realizing his element needed to break away from the hostile force, he began moving forward alone. though repeatedly thrown to the ground, he continued to advance and firing, and including one enemy machine gun position. from his dangerous forward position, he laid suppressive fire and after the enemy troops broke contact, his comrades realized he had succumb to his wounds. his selflessness at his own