Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are REPRIMANDED

[theearthisround]

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1045

PENSACOLA, Fla., Sept. 6 - Two Navy helicopter pilots and their crews returned from New Orleans on Aug. 30 expecting to be greeted as lifesavers after ferrying more than 100 hurricane victims to safety.

Instead, their superiors chided the pilots, Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow, at a meeting the next morning for rescuing civilians when their assignment that day had been to deliver food and water to military installations along the Gulf Coast.

.......
In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, "So Others May Live."

(more)
http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1045

[seabeyond]

1. so, even the few that were rescuing those days weren't suppose

to be rescuing. leaving fema even more culpable. once again, it is an american's own initiative that saved lives. not our govt

[NorCalDem]

2. Your orders were to deliver food to white people

not rescue the darkies! :sarcasm:

[truebrit71]

3. This is simply outrageous and needs to be shown to one and all...

....My initial reaction is "You have GOT to be kidding me"....

Unbelievable...simply, unbelievable....

[cthrumatrix]

4. Of course Sean Hannity will be covering all FEMA "blocks" --- NOT

it's okay that people are denied care according to Hannity and other RW hate radio mongers

[defiant1]

5. Wow....

*snip*

"We all want to be the guys who rescue people," Commander Holdener said. "But they were told we have other missions we have to do right now and that is not the priority."

*snip*

I guess I just don't understand why saving people is not the first priority.

[kodi]

6. those guys are the best of the best, fuck their commanders

it serves to expose the quantum difference between the rhetoric of "taking the initiative" versus the actions of doing so in the minds of the command structure.

[ForrestGump]

7. I know an Air Force SAR ('Jolly Green') pilot and there's no doubt in

my mind that he'd have risked everything, career-wise, to get as many people out as he could. Those guys lay their lives down on the line, without hesitation, to rescue downed pilots and others in time of conflict and would not hesitate to do the right thing in a civil situation like this. At some point, though, the system will beat you down...grounding, court martial, or whatever.

This is unbelievable. In light of what happened, and what the crews were otherwise doing, how could there possibly be a mission more vital than saving lives in dire risk?

[bloom]

8. "So Others May Live."

:cry:

[gulfcoastliberal]

9. I've been out on Pcola Beach since Thursday

At my moms house and have seen numerous Navy choppers flying 50 ft over the turqouise (for now) waters of the gulf and wondering why they weren't about 170 miles west of here? In fact, one flew by just now as I type this!