Here is something for everyone.
Birds of a strange feather
I can say, as a cruel but accurate joke, that in the course of
reporting this story that I've heard more about the Republic of
Singapore Air Force than FEMA, Mayor Nagin, Gov. Blanco, President
Bush, and all the other obsessions of the the national media
combined, which strongly suggests the usual suspects were at best,
not central to what happened and at worst, out to lunch. What
really happened with this crew is the subject of another
story.
I continue to be fascinated by what the Republic of Singapore Air
Force represents, namely the total collapse of reporting standards.
Besides getting many of their facts wrong, my former colleagues
missed the best damn human interest story I've heard in years.
Pilots I interviewed mentioned sighting such an aircraft or hearing
from someone who had. Later, one source who I will avoid naming
here to spare embarassment scoffed and thought I made that one up,
like other somebody invented baby raping.
I told him I'd heard about this mysterious RoS Chinook from one of
his pilots, and that I'd found a web site in Texas that confirmed,
vaguely, that there was some kind of helicopter that belonged to
Singapore in the neighborhood. And that I'd included the anecdote
because it was just too damn juicy to pass up. I am at heart a
professional journalist, and willing to be a touch irresponsible
when so moved.
As I later found out last week on the Web, the feisty little
nation-state does not have enough airspace to run regular training
programs for its tiny but world-class air force. So our allies from
Singapore permanently station aircraft with the Texas National
Guard in the U.S. And on any given day several hundred of its
citizens, comprised of pilots, maintenance crews, and dependents,
reside in the U.S and fly high performance fighters and helicopters
for practice. In what could serve as a metaphor for all the
reporting on Hurricane Katrina, even yours truly had underestimated
their contribution. There wasn't a single Republic of Singapore
Chinook that brought those foreign friends to help the Big Easy in
its hour of desperate need. There were four.
http://dolinar.com/column/politics/superdome.html
