10 years ago today...

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

...a 9.1 magnitude earthquake (third largest earthquake ever recorded) caused the seabed of the Indian Ocean to rise by several meters triggering a massive tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people.



I could say that "The Boxing Day Tsunami" was a defining moment for me but I would be selling it short. I feel like talking about my own experience would be trivializing it's impact, and yet I can't really let the day pass unmarked eitherso I might as well share.





The Indonesian flag flies at half-mast on a soccer field turned impromptu airport. This Tsunami and the ensuing humanitarian response would bring an end to the Sumatran insurgency. The main rebel group, GAM, declared a cease-fire on 28 December 2004 followed shortly by the Indonesian government, which resulted in a permanent peace agreement being signed 15 August 2005.



This mosque was one of the few building in our particular area of operations left standing, make of that what you will, it quickly became our primary navigational aid and casualty collection point.



The triage tent.



This picture was submitted to the Military Times photo of the year contest, and ended up getting used in a recruiting campaign. This annoyed Butters, the crewman pictured, to no end.



One if the things that stuck out at me was just how happy people were to see us. It feels like we got a warmer welcome from Islamic separatists who a week earlier would have been shooting at us than I did coming home from Iraq in 06 and 08.



On a related note, the kids were relentlessly, disturbingly, cheerful. Seriously it was amazing, uplifting, and at the same time kind of terrifying. Whenever I hear some SJWannabe going on about "trigger warnings" or being "traumatized" by "micro-agression" I think of these kids and it becomes very hard to take anything they say seriously.



We din'nt have many translators so communication was most often accomplished via a mixture of pre-prepared cue-cards, pictionary, and wild gesticulation.



Rice from above...



Gratuitous helicopter porn...


ETA:
Apologies as I just realized that it is Saturday rather than Friday. So I probably need to add some more material in an effort ti better comply with Rule 8.

Comments

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

The material is perfect.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Wonderful post. Thanks for posting those photographs.

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Indeed, recommended.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Great post. Happy new year.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Thankyou and likewise.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Whenever I hear some SJWannabe going on about "trigger warnings" or being "traumatized" by "micro-agression"

Seriously?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Seriously?

as a heart attack.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Irony.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

idiom.

Irony would be "Serious as fluid aspiration".

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

People can't all be optimistic tsunami victims, you'll have to cope with other problems eventually...

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Sure they can. Point being that when victim status is awarded freely, the currency of victimhood becomes inflated.

[404.livejournal.com]

If only the victims of the tsunami had a tumblr account, they could receive their justly rewarded victim status.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Even if you had a tumblr account, then I would care about your whining about SJW's in a post memorializing Tsunami victims.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

It does though. Peoples problems scale to fill them up.

That some can handle tsunamis with a smile (youth) and others cannot handle taunting and then commit suicide, doesn't value or devalue their pain. A child who cries still feels pain, even if his parents laugh at the event.

"The sadness of the world brings the old man laughter
The laughter of the world only grieves him, deceives him" - genesis (band)

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I don't buy it. Not all trauma is created equal. To claim otherwise only cheapens the human experience.

Only the dead have seen an end to war.
So long as we breathe there'll be more punishment in store.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

What is there to buy? A child will cry over spilled milk and a man over a lost job. Think one isn't in pain?

Do you look at the man crying and scoff at the child crying?

Did you always react the same to trauma at every stage of your continued development?

I suppose psychopathy is a thing.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

You have that backwards. comfort the child and scoff at the man. The child who cries over spilled milk does not know any better because they are a child. The man who cries over a lost job does not cry over spilled milk.

As you grow older you, hopefully, gain perspective and set a side childish things.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

He cries because he has no milk for his child.

I have grown older more than I shall be granted time, young man.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

That sounds a bit like a motte and bailey fallacy to me. What is the man really crying about? The milk or the threat of starvation?

[404.livejournal.com]

It shows how ridiculous their victim-hood argument is.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Which is relevant to this post how? Like I said, ironic.

[404.livejournal.com]

Because people like this exist:

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Welp, now the post is derailed. Mission accomplished.