Indonesian relief

I thought this exchange on the military blog Blackfive was pretty interesting. An anonymous officer on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, engaged in relief efforts off the coast of Sumatra, wrote this essay griping about having to ferry around a bunch of journalists and “trifling do-gooders.” Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Vorce gave him wicked smackdown:

With respect to the media, the only negative portrayal of Operation UNIFIED ASSISTANCE (the name given to the US military’s regional response to the tsunami disaster) I have seen was Mr. Stanton’s. The Indonesian press has praised our work and questioned the paucity of relief assistance from other Islamic nations. Military service members often complain that the media “doesn’t get it right” and fails to cover all of the positive work we do; this time the media got it right and Mr. Stanton got it wrong.