The Last Post

[Hipper]

I'm not sure this is the place to ask, but I'll ask anyway!


As the bodies of the victims of the MH17 air crash were unloaded at Eindhoven, 'The Last Post' was played.


I'd always assumed this was a military procedure. Am I wrong?


As I trawled the internet to find an answer I came across at least two explanations for where 'The Last Post' came from:


Last Post - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Post)


https://www.facebook.com/notes/jaago-pakistan/the-last-post/10150344011137785

[sycamore]

Hip, it may seem trite,but the aircraft was shot down over,and in a `war zone`,by possibly `militarists` ; not that the crew/pax were necessarily aware of that,and there were probably many on board who were ex-military persons.Also Eindhoven is a joint mil/civil airport,and it would seem fitting to have the `Last Post` played,out of respect,dignity and honour for those who had fallen,whether civilian /ex-mil,and all nationalities,faiths/colour/race......

[Wander00]

IMHO the Dutch did the whole thing brilliantly, and they have to do it again, and again, and again and................. The "military" ceremony seemed entirely appropriate

[Capetonian]

I thought the Dutch have been, and continue to be, superb, as one might expect.

I received this as part of an email this morning from one of my Dutch friends :

It is a mixed atmosphere here in Holland these days, we have been having terrific summer weather over the past week or so, with temps reaching into the 30 degrees, which I just love, while others huff and puff since that is a bit too much of a good thing for many of my fellow Dutchos. But then, in the weekend when most people started their vacation that terrible aircrash happened. This is a small country, as you know, so places, people, histories of victims are relatively close, i.e. a senator was on board, a number of well known AIDS researchers, and many families & kids starting vacation. 3 entire families, 13 people, from the town where I went to school, just next to the village where my parents still live, died, for example, so it really hacks into local communities. I fortunately did not lose any friends or family.


Yesterday was a day of mourning and I felt that the whole day's event were reasonably bearable. I personally have very ambivalent feelings about public displays of mourning, and the whole social media collective mourning, and people lining up everywhere to sign condolences books etc, what I shall call "The Lady Di phenomenon", very quickly reaches a point where I find it very off-putting, basically, because I feel that if one loses someone, one writes a personal letter of condolences which is mailed directly to the ones left behind, or calls, or visits, and if one does not know the victim, one should simply shut up and get out of the picture, but that is just my personal opinion.


And from another :



......... to MH17, we were all shocked by the way all this went.... ( i know people from Ukraine , and they are decent people, do no misunderstand me ) the ***** ( rebels ) that looted the place, taking phone, money, credit cards, jewelry , anything that could be of use, taking rings off hands etc etc.... until they were satisfied , and only then they allow teams to come in.


The rebels should have been shot, or at least jailed, ( i hope this will still happen in the future )


Then, that ***** Putin... with his attitude..


But the cesspool starts smelling even more, as that area was avoided by BA/AF just no name a few, and the Ukraine govt never delcared that area as no fly zone.... think about that.


KL 871 and SQ 305 and the SQ351 flew over that area just before and just after.... how about that?


295 innocent people, amongst them 80 youngsters in the plane, 3 infants, even pets were carried in the cargo hold. i am still astonished by what happened, still surreal to me...


Are you aware that Putin has 2 daughters? 1 of the 2 Maria lives in Voorschoten, just south of Leiden and lives together with a NL guy?


For a start, they should throw her out of the country and cancel all agreements ever made with Russia, freeze all assets of Putins buddies in the EU etc etc.
They show their true colours, so can we...


The Russian indifference is unbelievable, plus the fact that Russia deployed their BUK system in that country.....