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I read all the conspiracy theories with an open mind, and their point is that night they were testing the AEGIS system (I think that is what it was called) specifically as some final test to show that it was sophisticated enough to operate in a very busy warfare situation.

You're probably thinking of the stories concerning a Aegis lab in New Jersey, and the claim that they were operating tests that night. They may well have been, but testing Aegis doesn't require firing a missile. I spent nine years on active duty with the Atlantic fleet, all of it on SAM equipped ships. I never once participated in a missile shoot anywhere except the range off Puerto Rico, I never heard of anyone shooting a missile near New York, never participated in a live fire exercise of any kind north of the Virginia cape. The military isn't stupid, regardless of what people think. And conducting a live fire exercise of any kind near the most heavily travelled air corridor in the world would be way past stupid.

While I know nothing about naval live fire exercises (only army .... I once had a live TOW go 120+ degrees off course at Graf ....that was a bad day), I thought there was a 'range' off of Long Island that was active at the time TWA 800 went down? I also thought that the F-14 was made on Long Island? Your thoughts on a Phoenix or other advanced missile being tested on an F-14?

The military isn't stupid, regardless of what people think.

I'm definitely not one of those people. I give thanks every day for the brave men and women who serve our country. As the saying goes "There's no 'land of the free' without 'the brave'.