Oh, good. Everything’s under control. The Scientologists are there.
Amid the mass of aid agencies piling in to help Haiti quake victims is a batch of Church of Scientology “volunteer ministers”, claiming to use the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems….
Some doctors at the hospital are skeptical. One US doctor, who asked not to be named, snorted: “I didn't know touching could heal gangrene.”
When asked what the Scientologists are doing here, another doctor said: “I don't know.”
Do you care? “Not really,” she said, wheeling an unconscious patient out of the operating room to join hundreds of others in the hospital's sunny courtyard.
It boggles the mind. Surreality in the midst of actual disaster.
Hey, if a little human contact makes the patient feel better or distracts them from their condition for awhile I am all for it.
However, if your woo interferes with my troops providing care I will have my Marines escort you elsewhere.
Bingo… just don’t screw them up worse, and stay the heck out of the way.
Okay, but I’ll only be impressed if they can use the “reconnecting power” to put back on all the limbs the earthquake victims lost.
Sounds like these guys are just taking up food and water that should belong to Haitians.
When we suggest that there is any credibility to these fraudulent treatments, we harm patients. When people listen to these quacks, they start to believe that they do not need real medical care. That is harmful.
There is nothing human about a bunch of witches trying to convert people during a disaster.
To put the heart of the relief, the initial airlift, into perspective I want to provide a little background that many people aren’t aware of.
As a retired member of the world’s most effective organization for moving stuff by air in general (USAF) and heavy stuff by air in particular (Air Mobility Command) I can assure you the without the U.S. Air Force nothing more than band aides will get on the ground. AND without the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops to protect those band-aids they will remain hiding behind a fence or stolen by gangsters.
While disasters bring out the best in people it brings out even more of the worst in people desperate for relief of just looking to make a buck on the backs of the unfortunate.
The 621st Air Mobility Operations Group, McGuire AFB, NJ had men on the ground Thursday, January 14 attempting to open the airport. The full Tanker Airlift Control Element (TALCE) was on the ground by January 16 or 17 and any aircraft into and out of the airport will be under the control of the 621st.
A TALCE is a mobile C2 organization deployed to support strategic and theater air mobility operations at en route and in-theater airhead locations. TALCE’s operate the airfield to include ramp operations, aircraft parking, and aircraft off-load operations. TALCE’s provide on-site management of air mobility operations to include C2, communications, aerial port services, maintenance, security, transportation, weather, intelligence, and other required support operations.
The USA will have set up ROWPUs by now near the water but as close to the airport as possible. A ROWPU is a Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit that will convert salt water into potable (just) water. I think I recall that the salinity of the Caribbean is higher than the Atlantic, which makes it harder and takes longer to get fresh water. Until there is enough water to fill the fire engine tanks and provide a margin of safety for fire fighting at the airfield, water for hygiene will be limited for a few days. (it took 2 weeks at Mogadishu, apparently the Indian Ocean is also more saline. We all were a bit whiffy)
Initially only aircraft with enough fuel to land and take off will be permitted while the TALCE fuel guys attempt to set up a fuel farm for both reciprocal and jet turbine aircraft. For the USAF that won’t be a problem, Rosy Roads and Gitmo as well as south Florida are well within the range of the heavy lifters. Depending on the damage and ramp space all flight operations are effected by the MOG (Maximum On Ground). The TALCE commander has to determine how many airplanes can be on ground at one time in order to operate the airfield safely. If he exceeds his/her MOG (easily done, civilian aircraft land and break or run out of fuel, etc) he has to put aircraft waiting to land in a holding pattern. If they can’t hold long enough to permit them to land and take off without on loading fuel they’ll be sent away.
I’m very very proud of the AMC and the TALCE folks. They and they alone opened the airports in Haiti. The U.S. military will be the key to this entire operation, period.
I was on the TALCE staff at Mogadishu during Op RESTORE HOPE I & II.
I first worked with a TALCE in the first Gulf War. I saw men and women worked so hard that they could sleep on a cot in a hangar in daylight that was 103 degrees while airplanes and cargo handling equipment made enough noise to raise the dead, but not those Airmen.
The U.S. military will be the key to this entire operation, period.