Originally Posted by
melmothtw
If you're referring to 'that' photo of the C-17, there were at least 183 children onboard which is why the incorrect figure of 643 was initially given instead of the actual figure of 823.
I am afraid I suspect those figures were devised by
PR staff to be solemnly reproduced in the media (as indeed they were). Can you honestly say that when this aircraft was stormed an accurate manifest was kept ? And you can spot 4 children, in a photo of the whole aircraft interior taken from the front bulkhead. We all wonder where the other 179, plus their mothers, are.
Personally, I am not going to criticise young men or anyone else for wanting to get out of Afghanistan while they can. If I were in their shoes, I would no doubt do the same (as I am guessing would you, WHBM).
I don't know. However I don't recall my father (RAF WW2 bomber crew, Handley Page Halifax in case you ask, to keep us on PPRuNe topics) saying that if the Germans had started invading Britain in 1940 he, alone, would have been down at the Liverpool docks looking to storm a ship to Canada, RAF and family left behind ...