Grief, anger as all but 1 miner found dead

CNN ^ | 1/4/06 | CNN

[Alberta's Child]

If I were in charge of a rescue operation like this, Rule #1 would be that anyone caught making a personal call on his cell phone would have the phone shoved up his @ss. Sideways.

I'm willing to bet that this was exactly what happened here.

[Ditter]

I have commented on Rita Cosby's voice several times, hoping that a doctor would chime in with a diagnosis. It makes me feel breathless just listening to her.

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

in a 24 year Navy career I was involved in more aircraft mishaps, search and rescues, disaster relief, and recovery operations than I care to remember. The only rule that applied to all was:

"First reports are ALWAYS wrong!"

The military takes a lot of heat from the press for "withholding details, pending notification of next of kin," for "refusing to speculate," for "I can neither confirm or deny," and for having a single, designated spokesperson to the media and the public (usually the person in charge or the Public Affairs Officer if the command is large enough).

One of the wisest flag officers I was privileged to work for explained it this way: "You only have one chance to tell the story. You have to be 100% accurate the first time. No one will remember a 30 or 60 minute delay to check the facts and confirm the sources. Everyone will remember if we are wrong. "

Ultimately the fault lies with any and all personnel in the rescue center who grabbed a cell phone or land-line to "tell family and friends the good news." You shouldn't become involved in operations such as this if you are so lacking in self-discipline.