Again, it was another terrible week. This time, rather than a collision at sea, it was a tanker aircraft falling from the sky in the middle of America. A dozen and a half fatalities so far, according to the initial reports.
The talking heads will go at it, speculating the reasons why the Marines lost a KC-130 and good people in the middle of a farmer’s field in Mississippi. Someone should propose a law preventing broadcasters from saying anything on air dealing with aviation. Ships, too, for that matter.
Many in the media think they are experts in aviation, military, firearms, medicine, law, and other subjects. The truth is that they really don’t know much about anything, which is why they should try to refrain from saying too much on air. The media will speculate, however, and they will miss the mark by a wide margin. It seems as though they never read or give credence to the wise words of Abraham Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
We owe a debt, a sincere debt of gratitude, to those in the Marine Corps aircraft and those who loved each crew member who perished in this accident. The business of keeping the country free begins here, in the homeland, and the cost on our soil can cause as much pain and grief as in foreign lands.
What happened? We don’t know yet. And anyone speculating at this point is truly showing ignorance. This investigation will take a long time, just as the USS Fitzgerald inquiry also will take time. Trying to explain what happened now is pointless. Before the explanation, we have to gather and analyze the facts.
For now, we should be a humble nation paying great homage to our heroes.
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©2017 J. Clark
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