Neil Gould wrote:
Recently, Dudley Henriques posted:

Neil Gould wrote:
Recently, Paul Dow (Remove CAPS in address)
posted:

According to Snopes.com, this incident was in 2005.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/wakeup.asp


There was another letter that continued this topic.

To his credit, the complainant, Mr. MacRae, tendered a written
apology which was published in The Republic on 9 July:

[...]
I had no idea of the significance of the flyby, and would never have
insulted such a fine and respectful display had I known.
[...]
I served in the U.S. Navy and am a Vietnam veteran.

Anyone else have trouble reconciling these two statements?

Neil


Not at all. The first statement obviously is a referral to THIS
SPECIFIC flyby and indicates that the complainant was unaware that
the flyby involved a ceremony.
The second statement is a simple comment that indicates the
complainant was a veteran and had he known it was a cerimonial flyby
would NOT have written his letter.
I see no "sinister" indications here. I'm assuming you are referring
to a veteran having no idea what the significence of the flyby would
be and therefore suspect?
I don't see that at all.

Just to be clear, I see no "sinister" indications, either. I wondered
about anyone, especially a vet, not at least thinking that a low-level
formation flyby might be part of a ceremony. It's the first thing that
would have occurred to me, but perhaps I've just seen too many of them?
Also, it took some time to reflect on the incident in order to write the
letter to the newspaper, and that may have triggered a recollection, too.
So, I asked the question, and accept from the responses of others that it
not would be all that unusual.

BTW - I agree with your conclusion that the Col. missed an opportunity,
although I wouldn't expect his superior to be any more sensitive to that
possibility than he was.

Neil



I understand what you are saying. It would have occured to me as well.
The interesting thing about the position I have taken on this is that
the complainant is actually irrelevant in the equation. His letter for
my position is nothing more or less than a useful tool that might have
been used by the Col to a better advantage.
It was a gambit declined....a stalemate achieved where checkmate was
obvious. :-)

Dudley Henriques