Asiana 214 - How About No Comment

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/epic-ktvu-fail-anchor-reports...

"When you think about automation, it can do a lot, it can assist the pilots. But there are two pilots in the cockpit for a reason" - Deborah Hersman / National Transportation Safety Board, this week

"Tim, there is a trash can in the kitchen for a reason." - My mom, 1972

Anyone who has ever followed aircraft accident investigations since the birth of cable TV and the 24 hour news cycle should know exactly what NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman is doing, and its not just scolding. She is auditioning for her post-government job as an "expert" regarding air-accidents for MSNBC, Fox or one of the other chattering news channels.

There is really no earthly reason to comment or speculate on anything at this point. Volumes of facts are hidden now but will eventually be known. There may be pilot error or there may not. What is sure, though, is that partial conclusions and hints as to the reason for an accident made on a official basis and then repeated/interpreted/twisted by the media will be remembered forever. And that is a tragedy. Because those ideas may be dead wrong and the gift of technologies that lead us to the truth are more than compromised. They are corrupted- all for the sake of a quick answer.

Many months will pass before this accident is figured out. Good people will work very hard to come up with the reason for lives lost and damaged over the weekend. Soon enough, an extraordinarily safe industry will be made even safer.

But in the meantime, along with the victims, other good people may be harmed. Recklessly, because one government official in a highly responsible position wants to someday be another crash-expert-on-call with CNN. Our lawmakers will not stop this. The media, in it's unquenchable thirst for new information, speculation and conclusions, certainly won't either. Especially when those speculations come from the media's food source: the people we are supposed to trust who carry badges, sport large yellow letters on their jackets, and get to be the ultimate deciders of cause. Unfortunate behavior by people who hold the power to ruin lives as quickly as an airplane out of control.

Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks - Washington D.C.

For those not familiar with Evening Parade, let me describe it this way: Very very few of us will ever be able to see what a United States Marine does best. We will never be locked up in an embassy with an angry foreign crowd outside, protected by Marine sentries on duty. We won't be on a foreign beach as the steel and human tide of an amphibious assault commences and The Corps goes to work. We won't stand next to a Marine artillery weapon as it roars and spins salvation over the heads of comrades engaging an enemy downrange. We will never be on the flight-line of a forward airbase as Marine aviators and their support crews launch jets and helicopters into a hostile night sky. We will, in short, probably never be found among the most threatening people and places on earth wanting only to turn towards home while the Marines will head the other direction. Where they are needed most. Toward the fight.

What we are able to do, with a little luck and patience, is attend an event that U.S. Marines arrange, practice and execute very well: Evening Parade.

Every friday evening in the summer at the "oldest Post in the Corps"  Marine Barracks 8th and I, Washington D.C., we are afforded the honor of seeing some of our finest in military uniform: The United States Marine Band, The United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, the Marine Corps Color Guard, the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, and Ceremonial Marchers.

It is a ceremony that lasts 90 minutes - from twilight to dark on the parade grounds of the post. It is inspiring to those who currently or have ever served in the military and to everyone else who benefits from the sacrifices of these good men and women. It's been performed since 1934 and on the list of our country's best military demonstrations, it should be the absolute last one that ever goes away. From "Welcome..." to the last note of Taps fading away in the darkness, you will be moved and proud and thankful for all the United States Marines can do.

http://www.barracks.marines.mil/Parades/EveningParade.aspx