If it can go wrong, it will: Coast Guard drill sinks D.C.’s calm
| September 11, 2009 | 10:01 AM
More journal entries from John Moore »
Sounds like someone didn’t have both oars in the water.
First, the Coast Guard decided to hold a training exercise Friday morning on the Potomac River near the Pentagon, on the anniversary of 9/11, and didn’t bother to tell anyone. Then CNN apparently misinterpreted radio chatter from the exercise and started reporting that shots had been fired.
All of this happened about the time that President Barack Obama’s motorcade was crossing the river, heading back to the White House after he had spoken at the Pentagon to honor the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
No shots were actually fired during in the exercise, in which the Coast Guard was practicing its skills at keeping “enemy” boats out of a security zone. What the media heard were simulated orders to “fire,” issued over a marine radio frequency being used in the exercise. The FBI scrambled to see what was going on, and officials halted departures from Reagan National Airport. The White House said it had not been notified of the drill.
You have to wonder, at what point does conducting such training on the 9/11 anniversary start to sound like a good idea, especially near the Pentagon? And CNN might want to brush up on its skills listening to military and police radios. Most training messages begin and end with the word “exercise” or a similar phrase to avoid just such confusion.
Now the Coast Guard has had to launch something more than boats — an investigation.
The incident follows a similar scare in New York City in April, when Air Force One and an F-16 fighter jet flew low over the State of Liberty for a photo shoot. The person who ordered the flyover later resigned.
Read more at nytimes.com.
More stories from the “If It Can Go Wrong, It Will” department:
- In Pennsylvania, police tear-gassed the wrong house during a standoff. Read more at thepittsburghchannel.com.
- In England, an investigation has ended regarding an air-show accident in which an engineer hit the throttle instead of the brake, launching a Cold War-era bomber jet into the air. Read more at The London Times. Watch a video of the nail-biting takeoff at bbcnews.com
- Harvard and Yale universities have both taken huge hits in their endowments because of how the money is invested. Their combined losses are $17.8 billion. Read more at wsjonline.com.
9/11 anniversary, coast guard exercise, pentagon, runaway jet bomber, shots fired on potomac river, tear-gassed house
