An Army official apologized Friday for conducting an unannounced training mission around the small city of Port Angeles, Wash., using special operations helicopters that the mayor said "terrorized" his city.They're not even trying anymore.
Dozens of alarmed residents called police to ask what was going on and said the noise and light from the mystery helicopters buzzing around the city panicked horses and other livestock, The Peninsula Daily News reported.
The Army said the helicopters involved included both twin-engine Chinooks and Blackhawk attack helicopters.
"No one had any warning about the helicopters, no one said anything afterward, and today city officials had to spend hours just trying to find out what had happened -- who had invaded Port Angeles," said Cherie Kidd, mayor of the Olympic Peninsula city about 60 miles west of Seattle.
The training exercise involved part of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which is based at Fort Campbell, Ky., but has individual units in various locations, said Sgt. Jimmy Norris, an I Corps spokesman at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash. Part of the 160th is based at Lewis-McChord, he said.
"Our watch commander last night reported that we received `dozens of calls' complaining about low-flying helicopters over the city," Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said.
After multiple calls to Puget Sound-area military bases, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict was finally able to determine about mid-day Friday that the helicopters belonged to the Army, the newspaper reported.
That's not even a decent cover story.
The US Army and SOCOM have far too much experience, and are too image conscious to risk ill will from the public by running an unannounced training exercise over a city.
I'd almost bet body parts that it was an actual operation and that they didn't use the announcement of an exercise because even that news would have spooked their targets.
I could be wrong and the 160th might be staffed by idiots that no longer have common sense but I doubt it. And if its a case where they knew this would alarm and did it anyway then it had to be because the fallout was worth it.
Do I have to point out that if it was an actual 160th operation, they would never identify the helicopters as from the 160th?
ReplyDeletedo i need to point out that everything about this excuse is as off as three left feet?!
ReplyDeleteSolomon, I would say based on past experience that you are spot on my friend. The reason no announcement went out is because it was designed to be a show for someone who (based on someone's "undisclosed" intel) might have been planning some kind of "event" meant to target the shipping lanes for SeaTac and more specifically for Everett and Bremerton. Of course, we are all just guessing here... (Right?) Of course, as all of us on here know from our experience, when you are conducting an exercise that is not just for training but also designed to intimidate someone into in-action, publicly announcing your intentions to conduct such an exercise ahead of time diffuses its effectiveness in that area. This is why when we are playing "wargames" in the Middle East we don't feel the need to tell the mullahs, but when we are in the South China Sea, we sometimes give Beijing a courtesy call. Its all about "who" the show is for and whether we are trying to scare them or not. Of course, my feeling is OPs like this should be conducted in San Francisco Bay unannounced on a bi-monthly basis with aircraft buzzing all those responsible for forcing the military out of one of the few good ports on the west coast, oh and maybe some insertion drills on the "quad" at Stanford and Berkley to remind them why they have the freedom to act the way they do... ;)
ReplyDeletebut the "who" is what has me scratching my head! there are a handful plus of ops that have been pulled off that were terrorist related but never disclosed to the public.
Delete