Iran

[WillowRun 6-3]

In the broadcast media news, "SERE"

As I write this, news reports are heavily emphasizing the search and hoped-for rescue of the second aircrew member of the downed F-15E aircraft.

A few posts previous to this, Gums wrote of his experience in similar situations. Together with the media focus of the moment, I've been reminded of an item I read recently with some details about Jane Fonda's visit to North Vietnam which I had not previously known about. What that article brought to my attention (and yes, I am taking its assertions at face value, as I have no reason to find them exaggerated or falsified, but I also claim no particular expertise on the efforts by which she became known as "Hanoi Jane") was that the captors cleaned several American POWs up and presented them to Ms. Fonda as proof of the captors' good treatment. Several (according to the article) surreptitiously slipped their visitor small strips of paper, with notes intended to tell officials back home about their mistreatment, assuming Fonda would take their notes home and deliver them accordingly. Instead, ....

Instead, according to the article, Ms. Fonda delivered the notes to the captors. Several POWs were severely beaten, and (if I recall the article correctly) at least one died as a result of injuries so sustained.

In no way whatsoever does this post criticize or object to the media focus at present on the search and rescue effort. Rather, consider that during the air war over North Vietnam, was there ever such media focus over the losses of aircraft and aircrew? Granted, the media landscape during that war was vastly different. Still, Marshall McLuhan's writings stalk the progress, and regression, of global events even today. Still, the Medium is the Massage. But what would be a correct and valid designation - the phenomenon of intense focus on the downing of one aircraft and the results of CSAR efforts for two aircrew compared to the merely occasional coverage in the Walter Cronkite era - is it McLuhan 3.0? or some further iteration?

The aviation aspects of this war thus far are instructive on so many levels. "U.S. aircraft overwhelm[ed] Russian and Chinese equipment." (op-ed, WSJ, April 3, 2026 'Defeatism on the Left, Pollyannas on the Right', by Elliot Kaufman). The cited op-ed presents good fact-based assessment of the missile capacities of the Iranis - and this makes it fair game, in my view, for the aviation focus of this thread. If nothing else, IAMD - Integrated Air and Missile Defense - supports citing the op-ed here; after all, drones also operate through the airspace, or at least the air littorals.
(The op-ed has much to commend it. Among other things, it clearly articulates that the strategic outcome is far from determined - but without making the argument based on unwillingness or inability of, uh, certain national government leaders. Implicit in the op-ed is an observation that despite the strengths, weaknesses or enigmas present in any such leaders, there are aspects of the U.S. presidency which are constant, and do not yield, or at least do not yield in any material way, to the foibles of a specific occupant of the office. In that context, it additionally notes that "options" for escalation indeed need to be examined closely insofar as risks, potential losses and plausible gains are concerned.)

It's too darn bad that for decades, the media-cultural industrial complex has broadcast, filmed and otherwise made and distributed such vast amounts of "content" which rather than laud and inculcate respect for the men and women who put on the uniform and serve, has produced such volumes of derision, disrespect and disregard for their service. Yes, I have watched both Maverick films - back to back - on a flight coming back from Brussels and EUROCONTROL. That sort of content helps, but I already wanted to see the films again, and so don't chalk it up to the altitude over the North Atlantic, back to Chicago.