There are twenty-four of them, and their names can be found a the end of this article.
I was a cryptologic technician while I was in the Navy and was to a P-3 squadron while stationed in Maine. My best friend ever is, in another week, going to Souda Bay, Crete, Greece, to fly over that area, and it scares the crap out of me.
And.
I recognize one of the names on the list. Not a good friend, not someone I knew well, but one of those people you knew a few years ago who pops up on your mental radar every now and again. And I’m well aware that if Mike’s orders had been to WestPac rather than the Med he could very well have been on that plane.
Send some hugs (or prayers, if that’s your bent) to these people and their families. They need them.
But I’ll save the hugs. China is more than likely NOT dumb enough to mistreat the hostages, although they ARE dumb (or smart) enough to drag things out until they see what there is to see.
As a Secret Squirrel, you must have knowledge of the destruct policies (especially since Topsham had EP-3E’s, I did time at the Topsham Annex, myself) for that type plane. I would CERTYAINLY hope they started the boom-boom stuff soon after the nearest airfield was IDed. I hope those commies get a smoking pile of burning metal to analyze.
But your bud, he may be eating more rice than usual, but if those guys are harmed, I’m re-upping to smoke some Fantans.
Our men and women, servicemen throughout the world, are facing the same threat every day. My thoughts go out the those “detained” today and those put in harms way tomorrow.
China might have stolen some of our weapons designs, but, uh…we got the weapons already. They might have a billion people, but picks and hoes don’t travel real well against A-10’s, F-16’s, F-111’s and F-117’s (and let’s not forget the venerable B-52).
Diplomacy will prevail. It’s not like they’ve got Hussien over there.
One of the effects of this is a massive media invasion of Whidbey Island, where I live. Yesterday, on my way home, I noticed that a P-3 was doing touch-and-gos at Paine field, the Snohomish county airport. It’s where Boeing makes their big planes, the 747 & 777’s, and it’s about 20 miles south of the base.
This is not normal procedure – they usually only do that at NAS Whidbey. I’ve never seen any military activity at Paine field before. This was a camo’d P-3 Orion, not an EP-3, so did they just not want CNN to air 2 hours of stupid touch-and-go footage of the wrong plane? So they do the touch and go’s at the local public airport? How is that better?
Why not just cancel the exercise? Was it a reserve crew, and this was their only chance? Was a pilot about to lose his certification due to low hours?
More questions than answers, but I find anomaly’s interesting.
Danalan, I’m a former EP-3 guy out of Whidbey. T & G’s at Paine are pretty normal, believe it or not. You need to get away from the home field every now and then and experience other airports. SeaTac charges landing fees; Paine doesn’t. Cheaper to go to Paine.
I recognize many names on that list. I’m not so sure about them NOT being mistreated, although physically I think they’ll be ok. Mentally it’s probably a different story.
My best goes out to all those guys, who did nothing wrong, no matter what the PRC government says. Heros, every one of 'em.
Several engineers I work with are headed to Japan in the hopes of getting a look at the structural integrity of that plane, assuming that we’ll be allowed to bring it home (Not that I expect that to happen) Since my specialty is landing gear, they don’t need me. I don’t suppose those of us who work in defense will ever be out of a job. How very sad…
Anyway, here’s hoping this all gets resolved soon and everyone gets home safely.
Thanks, I go by almost every day and never saw them before. Probably just syncronicity. I still think CNN would have used the footage.
I’m pretty worried about this whole thing – China has executed spies before, and we’ve admitted that’s what we were doing. I think there are too many other considerations for that to happen, but if I were CNO (fat chance!) I’d be for putting Johnny Cochrane and F. Lee Bailey on retainer.