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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
dvsmith
Published Letters: 58 Editor's Choice: 2
RDU - While I agree with RealName that Raleigh-Durham International Airport (which is located wholly in Durham County, incidentally) should be on the list, the staff isn't the reason. In my lifetime (since 1979), I don't believe there has been a single moment that RDU hasn't been under construction or reconstruction. First, it was the construction of the new terminal, attached to the original terminal (which, confusingly, became Terminal 'B'), then its reconstruction, in anticipation of the 1987 Olympic Festival. Then came American's disastrous C-terminal hub, which then became Midway's disastrous C-terminal hub, which is now being rebuilt as a general terminal. Ever-present unpainted drywall, plastic sheeting and roped-off construction areas are now part of the aesthetic, I think.
IAD - In my decade of living in D.C., Dulles always depressed me -- I don't know if it was the constant construction in the lower levels, the omnipresent water leaks, the cold concrete, the enormous security lines, the sardine-can-like ride in the mobile lounges to spartan mid-field terminals, or the seemingly endless taxiing to runway 12/30. The $60+ cab rides to and from D.C. didn't help, either, sometimes the only choice when a weekend flight arrived too late to catch the shuttle for the last Metro from W. Falls Church (after the $8 Flyer bus service to K street ended).
DCA - National is somewhat schizophrenic: while the B and C terminals are gorgeous, airy and convenient to the Metro and the GW Parkway, flying out of the Banjo feels like a punishment -- the walk down the dark, narrow corridor, with its low ceilings provides an ominous sense of dread that doesn't lift once you get to the security gate. Once inside, you're trapped in a tiny room, with a full view of planes taking off and landing... and servicing the other end of the airport. Your only refreshment and retail options, while you wait for your tardy flight are limited to a small kiosk in the middle of the round room, if you're lucky and they're staffed.
LHR - Aside from being dingy and covered in endlessly half-finshed construction, Heathrow is filled with over-tired, over-packed travelers and overpriced shops. Traveling through Heathrow seems to be an exercise in hurry-up-and-wait: you race for one of the precious seats in the pre-departure area, strain to hear the muffled announcements above the incessant din and then, once your departure gate is finally posted to the information display, you have 20 minutes to get through a maze of corridors and through security before your plane leaves, 40 minutes late, without you, to spend another half hour taxiing.
CDG - I had the wonderful luck to spend nine hours in Charles de Gaulle in June 2001. It started with an hour and half in line for a Sabena flight to Brussels (then on to JFK, then BWI... ugh). Unfortunately, my flight appeared popular with illegal immigrants who wanted to leave France to reset their tourist visas -- between 300 and 400 people were attempting to buy tickets to the already sold-out flight, most of them in-line in front of me. By the time I got to the counter, the flight was supposed to be departing the gate. I handed the ticketing agent my passport and check-in information, she disappeared and the announcement was made that the flight was cancelled and that all passengers were to go to the Swissair desk for re-ticketing and in a woosh, the crowd, the agents and my passport were gone. After 5 minutes of screaming various obscenities in French and English, I was finally returned my passport and queued at the end of the line. When my turn came, there was a silver lining - I was given a business class bulkhead ticket on a Air France 777 flight from CDG to IAD, direct... unfortunately, it didn't leave for another 7 hours and I couldn't check any of my luggage until two hours before the flight, meaning I was stuck at the ticketing area, subjected to repeated 'inspections' by the airport police, as I was suspected of loitering and the occasional evacuation due to someone finding an unattended piece of luggage.
The sad fact is that many of the mental problems seen in returning soliders, sailors, marines and airmen are due to traumatic brain injury. TBI rates have been higher during Iraqi Freedom than any other U.S. combat mission, mainly due to the higher survival rate of previously fatal injuries -- a rate helped by new helmet materials and designs. Unfortunately, when the Pentagon decided to replace the PASGT "Fritz" helmets with lighter, stronger designs (namely, the Army Combat Helmet and the Marine Lightweight Helmet) the decision was made to save $3 per helmet and omit the foam padding found in the prototypes, in favor of a web suspension system that has been in use, in one form or another, since 1942. Though the new helmets are much more effective at preventing penetration by shrapnel and small-arms fire, their lower mass means that more force is imparted directly upon the wearer's skull and brain, force which was designed to be absorbed by the now-omitted foam.
That $3 savings is not only costing the Pentagon millions in training and retaining additional uniformed mental health professionals, but it has exacted an unfathomable toll on the lives of thousands of otherwise-healthy young men and women whose lives, and the lives of their families, will never be the same again.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
