Apocalypse Now
Reference troubling
I tend to agree with many of Mr. Von Platen Luder’s concerns about military readiness as they were expressed in his letter published in WHT of Dec. 21 — it seems foolhardy to forget the importance of training to our security, although I also feel that training missions such as the landings, takeoffs and approaches conducted at Keahole International Airport should be structured to produce a minimum of disturbance for residents and visitors whenever possible.
I’m puzzled however by V.P.L.’s final reference to Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore’s cinematic “napalm in the morning” remark as spoken by actor Robert Duvall in the movie “Apocalypse Now,” a film filled with exaggerated characters and dialogue, which, at times, seems almost to celebrate a callous and casual approach to extremes of combat violence.
This reference seems out of character to me and I suppose it reflects the rather strident tone of some of the letters that preceded it objecting to the military’s use of Keahole International Airport. The script of Apocalypse Now was written by John Milius, who attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected by the corps because of chronic asthma and presumably (like most of us) never personally witnessed the consequences of a napalm strike directed at human beings. The quote conjured up a memory of the photo of the terrified Vietnamese child fleeing the site where her clothes and much of her skin had been burned away by the gelatinous gasoline that had been detonated there. Nick Ut’s picture of The 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phúc and the indiscriminate nature of the weapon that caused her agony echoes, in turn, the horrible injuries inflicted on many of the Naval personnel at Pearl Harbor in 1941, an event witnessed by a boy not much younger than the girl in the photo.
From my point of view, the consequences of diplomatic and political failure for the victims of combat are unworthy of celebration or expressions of satisfaction. Shouldn’t such eventualities be regarded as regrettable even if events progress in a manner that makes them necessary?
Michael Helms
Waimea
DLNR restructuring
Disband the agency
Restructuring the DLNR is like repainting the Titanic.
DLNR (Disfunctional, Lost, Never Realistic) has shown itself to be the most dysfunctional part of a barely functional state government.
Its response to every public request: Find a self-written rule that says no.
It’s time to disband it and turn its functions over to county government, which has some contact with the real world.
Ken Obenski
Kaohe