Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh

by Wendy S. Painting

When the body of Sgt. Tony Applegate (killed during Norfolk) returned home, despite the letter signed by Maj. Gen. Thomas Rhane (commander of the First Mech. Inf. Div.) explaining he “was killed as a result of enemy action” his widow became suspicious. Mrs. Applegate said, “The coffin didn’t weigh anything. I wondered if Tony was really in there.” The only portion of his body in the casket turned out to be a charred hipbone. Her husband was the gunner on a M1A1 Abrams tank that another Abrams hit with a sabot round, or ‘Silver Bullet’ that travels about a mile per second, its tip coated with dense depleted uranium. The sabot ignited a fire in Applegate’s tank that burned for two days. Army officials thought his body had been sucked through a three-inch vacuum created by the round. 21-year-old Spec. Tony Kidd also died from an American Silver Bullet during Norfolk. Initially, military officials told the families that their loved ones had simply been ‘killed in action’ but when, in August 1992, the Pentagon admitted they had died from friendly fire they acknowledged they had hidden the truth