[TowerTalk] Weird antenna question

[Merlin-7 KI4ILB]

<snip>Joe,  you didn't say what frequency you were operating on, or what distance
the contact was over, or where the antenna fell on the guy.

 It was on 40m band, 7.263.5
 The wires fell on the guy about 3 feet from the feed point.
 the feed point is 40 feet high about 2 feet away from the side of the tower.
 It is coax fed with an airwound choke at the feed point.
 The guys are grounded at the bottom and attached to the tower with no insulators on them. The tower also has 8 ground rods attached to it spread out about 75 feet from the base in several directions. My chain link fence is also attached to it, so I would think that it should be well grounded.

I made some contacts in Texas and PA if my memory's correct.
I was thinking it may have something to do with the air wound choke but I have no clue how one would act with 3 wires 1 foot apart and shorted to ground 3 feet from the feed point. The rest of the antenna was still there (laying on my roof) but again, I do not know if it could even use it with it laying on the guy wire 3 feet from the feed point.

 I was thinking if I could learn anything about this, you all would be the ones to point me in the right direction.

 Thanks
 Joe KI4ILB