I cannot understand why the military was mobilised at huge cost?
I thought this at first. However, it was the Coast Gaurd who was doing a lot of the rescue operation. Rescuing people from their bad boating decisions is most of what the Coast Gaurd does - if we don’t want to pay for it then we’d need to disband the Coast Gaurd. The only options were for us to pay for them to sit and watch or pay for them to try to help. At least they got more experience with these sort of rescues by trying to help.
I remember years ago a bunch of people were bitching about the cost when some family that got rescued in the middle of the ocean. The coast guard response to the money complaints was,“Look, if we weren’t rescuing them, we would be running drills to prepare to rescue them at the same cost.”
That is the one good thing that comes out of this. Lot of really good training. Something might come out of the investigation though these guys probably violated so many standard practices that may have little value.
It’s like when people bitch about having fighter jets fly over a baseball game. We don’t rent F-16s from Lockheed every time we want to take one out, they’re paid for already, and pilots need training. But I’m sure they’re the same kind of people who don’t understand why it’s useful for military pilots to run drills on things like being in a specific place at a specific speed and making it line up at the exact right time. I say complain all you want about glorification of the military-industrial complex, but don’t take the line that it’s some atypically expensive cost to the taxpayer.
I thought this at first. However, it was the Coast Gaurd who was doing a lot of the rescue operation. Rescuing people from their bad boating decisions is most of what the Coast Gaurd does - if we don’t want to pay for it then we’d need to disband the Coast Gaurd. The only options were for us to pay for them to sit and watch or pay for them to try to help. At least they got more experience with these sort of rescues by trying to help.
I remember years ago a bunch of people were bitching about the cost when some family that got rescued in the middle of the ocean. The coast guard response to the money complaints was,“Look, if we weren’t rescuing them, we would be running drills to prepare to rescue them at the same cost.”
That is the one good thing that comes out of this. Lot of really good training. Something might come out of the investigation though these guys probably violated so many standard practices that may have little value.
It’s like when people bitch about having fighter jets fly over a baseball game. We don’t rent F-16s from Lockheed every time we want to take one out, they’re paid for already, and pilots need training. But I’m sure they’re the same kind of people who don’t understand why it’s useful for military pilots to run drills on things like being in a specific place at a specific speed and making it line up at the exact right time. I say complain all you want about glorification of the military-industrial complex, but don’t take the line that it’s some atypically expensive cost to the taxpayer.