Navy Pilots Reprimanded for Rescuing People.... wtf???

[TimeChaser]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07navy.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126072863-wH8ewn9+Jn3MhqdEDLWMXA&oref=login

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.

"I felt it was a great day because we resupplied the people we needed to and we rescued people, too," Lieutenant Udkow said.


Sorry if this has been posted before

[rzemanfl]

1. While I suspect the "radio trouble" was of the "I can't hear you"

variety, these guys are heros and do not deserve kennel duty. The Navy sucks. Isn't it some sort of fundamental law of humanity that you help those in dire peril if you have the means?

[Geoff R. Casavant]

2. I expect the reprimand

was nothing more than a chewing out by their CO for going off mission. Probably followed by a "good job, McCloud" moment.

[Shadowen]

8. The "reprimand" was something like this?

[bloom]

7. more "highlights"

"Flying over Biloxi and Gulfport and other areas of Mississippi, they could see rescue personnel on the ground, Lieutenant 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.

Seeing people on the roofs of houses waving to him, Lieutenant Udkow headed in their direction. Hovering over power lines, his crew dropped a basket to pick up two residents at a time. He took them to Lakefront Airport, where local emergency medical teams had established a makeshift medical center.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Shand landed his helicopter on the roof of an apartment building, where more than a dozen people were marooned. Women and children were loaded first aboard the helicopter and ferried to the airport, he said.

Returning to pick up the rest, the crew learned that two blind residents had not been able to climb up through the attic to the roof and were still in the building. Two crew members entered the darkened building to find the men, and led them to the roof and into the helicopter, Lieutenant Shand said.

Recalling the rescues in an interview, he became so emotional that he had to stop and compose himself. At one point, he said, he executed a tricky landing at a highway overpass, where more than 35 people were marooned.

Lieutenant Udkow said that he saw few other rescue helicopters in New Orleans that day. The toughest part, he said, was seeing so many people imploring him to pick them up and having to leave some."

[Shadowen]

9. Heh. Reminds me of an X-wing novel.

Wedge orders a pilot to do , and he says, between bursts of static, "Sorry...idn't...hear...comm...maged." Wedge recognizes the "static" as the pilot rubbing his gloves over the comm receiver...because he did it himself.

So he orders a second pilot to bring the first back. "Static".

[NoBushSpokenHere]

3. How long before mutiny in NO against the Feds? n/t

[Silverhair]

4. That has to be a rogue commanding officer.

You get them in any organization. I have served under some. Usually actions like that get reversed by higher commanders. I am almost certain that is what will happen here.

If it doesn't then the Navy is in very bad shape.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. This is right up there with the kid who commandeered the school bus to

save people.

This sort of thing is to be lauded not derided.

------------------------------------------------------
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Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[bloom]

6. The really bothersome thing about it

IMO - is that it was the official policy that they NOT be helping.

And that the people the 2 Navy guys saw who were also helping were generally non-military AND the navy were obviously in the area, had the resources and were specifically NOT using them.

I don't think it was just the problem with these guys commander who was a shit or that unofficially they were applauded.

[spuddonna]

10. Yeah, these people had done their job, then save over 100 people...

And the one guy ends up pulled off flight duty to work at a kennel...

Yeah, our govt is doing REALLY great...

[Geoff R. Casavant]

11. Like it or not

The chain of command is there for a reason. These men had a clear mission and chose to substitute their judgment for that of their commanders. It is sometimes the hardest thing a military person must do, but unless an order is patently illegal it must be followed until countermanded.