Posted by zeugma on September 7, 2005, at 16:35:18
I read this today in the NY Times (sorry read the print version and the Times has a restrictive policy regarding their online version).
Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow were "chided" for "rescuing civilians when their assignment that day had been to deliver food and water to military installations along the Gulf Coast."
For his pains, Lt. Udkow has been "assigned to oversee a temporary kennel established at Pensecola to hold pets of service members evacuated" from the hurricane-devastated areas.
Commander Michael Holdener said of the two pilots, "they were told they have other missions we have to do and that is not the priority."
"Flying over Biloxi and Gulfport and other areas of Mississippi, they could see rescue personnel on the ground, Lt. Udkow said, but he noticed that there were few rescue units around the flooded city of New Orleans, on the ground or in the air. 'It was shocking,' he said."
I wonder if members of the NYPD received official reprimands for trying to pull people out of the World Trade Center before it collapsed. And I wonder what has happened to this country since then. The lack of care for its citizens shown here is as shocking as the sight of people waving desperately to helicopters as the floods threatened to engulf them was to Lt. Udkow and Lt. Shand.
"In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, 'So Others May Live.'"I applaud this protest. The patch makes a mockery of the people who should have lived, but were not thought worthy, the people of New Orleans.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:551968
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050728/msgs/551968.html