Air Force One flyover fiasco - private emails compare it to Three Stooges

Apparently his concern was dismissed, however, and the flight commenced that Monday morning.

After

Shortly after the flight, things got gloomy. One email provided a real-time assessment of how the public was reacting to the mission.

"Web site blog comments 'furious' at best. Twitter search reveals 'tweets' regarding two F-16's chasing commercial airliner. Rate of 1 tweet per minute and growing," it reads.

We had plenty of those blog comments. Like:

"We are hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid”. just another example." and "Haven’t these DoD dimwits ever heard of PHOTOSHOP???" and "This just proves that you don’t need a “brain” to get a job in the Federal Government."

No way out

Credit this same person, however, in realizing that there was no way out of it. "No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake," the email reads.

As you recall, this advice was taken. Only hours after the event, Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office, released a statement taking full responsibility for the fiasco. Less than two weeks later Caldera resigned.

Of course, the objective of the flyover -- despite its result -- was not to create panic as Turner explained in an email: "Again, my apologies sir. Real intent here was to honor NYC, not cause mass chaos," he said.

Three Stooges

One Pentagon spokeswoman summed up the event appropriately: "Nothing like having everyone point the finger at someone else so we ALL look like a big bunch of buffoons ... can you say Moe, Larry & Curly!??!?!"

You can read the full report here. Be cautioned, however, that the report is 553 pages and is 121mb (it takes awhile to download).

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