Don't forget that Brunei sits over a large pool of crude and that having a
guy like the sultan on our side in a very unstable region (then and
especially now) might be considered by Washington as a plus.
We used to do the same firepower demos for Marcos when he was "president" of
the Philippines. Detestable little runt, but it preserved Subic/Cubi and
Clark during a time when we really needed those bases.
--
Mike Kanze
"If you want to feel secure about the world, never talk to a member of the
generation that's running it."
- Jeremy Duncan (ZITS comic strip, 7/9/05)
"Michael Wise" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Otis Willie wrote:
Navy helo pilots plan tactical training in multi-phase exercise
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?...;article=31087
{EXCERPT} Stars and Stripes, D.C. - 4 hours ago SUBIC BAY, Philippines
US Navy Lt. jg Amy Sadeghzadeh was the first woman to ever fly a Royal
Brunei Air Force helicopter. When......
The link is broken (BTW, do copyright laws really prohibit reposting of
articles to not-for-profit FYI areas like Usenet?) , but the thought of
Brunei having a Royal Air Force brings a chuckle.
Just a tiny country with a filthy rich sultan/dictator ruling it. On my
1987 world cruise on CV-63, I remember the captain announcing the Sultan
of Brunei was going to be aboard. We all kind of looked at each other
thinking the same thing: where the f*ck is Brunei? After consulting an
atlas, we then pondered why a major US war ship should care about caring
about such a country...until we further read up on the sultan being one
of the richest people on earth.
He trapped aboard on one of VS-33's Hoovers, and a red carpet was rolled
out for him (literally). He wore an olive drab uniform bedecked with
ribbons and pins (despite the fact that he was non-military) and every
squadron in the CVW participated in an air show for his amusement (or
purchasing decisions). Even us lowly HS types were part of the show and
jumped a swimmer (me) abeam the port side. Maybe we impacted his
purchasing decisions after all. What sort of helos does the article
(w/broken link) you're citing refer to?
--Mike