Pentagon 'grills' jumpy computer

Erroneous computer readouts June 3 and 5 which falsely alerted US defenses to nonexistent Soviet missile launchings have been narrowed down to one part of the guilty computer, Pentagon spokesman John Ross said Tuesday.

Investigation now centers on that part, Monitory correspondent John Colley reports. US sensing indicators that reached the North American Air Defense Command had quickly established there was no real attack.

Any US retaliation would have come after data was provided by such indicators , "not computer readouts, Mr. Ross said, and the US knew within minutes that the indicators didn't show a Soviet Attack."

During the incident, crews of some US bombers were alerted and engines warmed up. An EC-135 control plane took off from Hawaii June 3. Gen. David C. Jones, USAF, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the unofficial US military newspaper Stars and Stripes and errors should show that the United States is "not trigger happy" but could respond quickly to a real Soviet Attack.