Pontius etc...
“Hot But Not That Hot...”
A fair comment...
Normally I would try not to become involved in a pointless back and forth debate but the somewhat sneering aspect of your response deserves a reply.
True we don’t draw index linked pensions and have battle honours hanging in the mess.. personally I have an enormous respect for those that do and especially for those that did and are no longer with us.
When we lost an aircraft and pilot to Taliban small arms fire it was not a ‘shot heard around the world ‘... Almost nobody outside of our small group would know of it.. the Herc that was lost a short time ago to a land mine buried on the runway at Lash Kar-Gah landed 3 minutes after one of our aircraft took off from that same runway.. yes we still operate to there and many other similar strips and I’ll be leaving here in one hour to start another days work..we operate unprotected and unarmed and as far as I know none of us even use our flack jackets even to sit on.. just too uncomfortable on a long day.
In my time operating in the Congo some of our people came under attack by rebels using that ubiquitous friend of the 3rd world the AK47. ...fortunately only one was seriously hurt ... on another occasion a pilot was badly beaten by rebels.. on several occasions I’ve been hauled out and threatened by AK toting ‘soldiers’ speaking no English or French...just Lingala.. my own reaction is alway first to smile and then laugh... this confuses them and so far they’ve always let me move on after a small ruffing up... Operating for another outfit recently I was evacuating army wounded ( Another African state) while the fighting continued... their military aircraft had been fired upon when attempting the evacuation so the theory was to send in a civilian aircraft in the hope it wouldn’t come under attack.. fortunately for myself and the pilot of another a/c the theory proved correct..Being part of an Humanitarian organisation we don’t get big bucks such as those flying fro Blackwater and Dyncorp... yes..if I could I would but I’m not a US citizen so don’t qualify...believe me, I get paid a lot less than you whatever that is and with no ‘benefits’ other than medical insurance...but the flyings the thing and I’d rather do what I do than go back to the airlines and do another ten years of schedules.
Hot but not Too Hot about sums it up... but it’s a fair way from an armchair while we’re working.
I don’t see the world divided into heroes and whimps... Rambos and Pansies... and the military and security personnel I come into contact with here and elsewhere invariably impress me as as professional guys just doing what they’re trained to do...
It’s normal to think that our military personnel are able not only to do their jobs efficiently but also that they’re conscious of being minor ambassadors for their countries... which is maybe why some of us without being too harsh were not entirely at ease with some of the statements made by these captives... remember I said some of the statements..
Stay safe.