Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision. While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.
Imagine this if you will: you're enjoying a beautiful, sunny day in New York City...when out of nowhere appears what appears to be a Boeing 747, flying low as it circles over Manhattan. And yes, New Yorkers reacted in pretty much the way that you'd expect them to, given the clearly NOT forgotten trauma of 9.11. Panic reigned as people evacuated office buildings and ran into the streets...and who could blame them? As I watched some of the video footage of the plane circling low over Manhattan, I found myself flashing back to that horrible September Tuesday morning. I can't even begin to imagine how it must have felt for New Yorkers. And then to find out that it was all just the equivalent of one very horribly unfunny practical joke perpetrated by the Director of the White House Military Office, one heretofore deservedly anonymous Louis Caldera? To call Caldera a DUMB@$$ wouldn't BEGIN to do justice to the terror he subjected New Yorkers to. It seems that everyone EXCEPT the general public was informed of the flyover. That it was little more than a photo op only adds insult to injury.
I've been to New York. I've visited Ground Zero. I lost a friend and college classmate when the Twin Towers collapsed. I've talked to New Yorkers who lived through 9.11...and it doesn't take long to understand that the sort of abject terror that reigned on that day is not something one easily forgets. You can begin to understand how and why Mayor Michael Bloomberg was furious. That the White House was caught unawares almost defies explanation, but apparently that's exactly what happened. The person responsible for leaving an entire city feeling in need of changing their shorts was Caldera, who apparently couldn't be bothered to give any consideration to the reality that New Yorkers might not react favorably to a 747 overflying Manhattan at a low altitude.
I can understand making a mistake. Lord knows I've )*&^%$ up enough in my lifetime to have my own wing in the Hall of Shame. Caldera's faux pas goes far beyond a mere (&^%-up, however. When you scare an entire city- an entire metropolitan area- because you couldn't see your way clear to notifying the general public as to why you were staging a low-level photo op for one of the planes that function as Air Force One, well, it's time to go. You need to find a job where the amount of harm you could conceivably do is kept to an absolute minimum- like managing a Dairy Queen in Temecula, CA.
DO NOT PASS "GO". DO NOT COLLECT $200. GO AWAY. FAR, FAR AWAY. NOW.