Forget the Marines, ‘Send Fawn’

In questioning retired Air Force Col. Robert C. Dutton at the congressional hearing investigating the Iran- contra affair Wednesday, Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) asked about the use of the code designation “DZ.” This, he found out, stood for “Drop Zone.”

But what, he wondered aloud to great laughter from the committees and the audience, did the following communique that Dutton had sent signify?

“Send Fawn. Can’t continue on milk and cookies. Regards, Bob.”

Dutton responded that the explanation was “highly classified.” But then he elaborated that, “at that point in time, we had finally been successful, and it was time to put just a slight bit of levity into what was going on. We’d been dead serious for a long time, and the idea of sending Fawn just struck me at a weak moment.”

Replied Hyde to this reference to Fawn Hall, the secretary to Lt. Col. Oliver L. North who has worked as a professional model: “No one can say you exercised poor judgment all the time, colonel.”