Posted on 03/21/2013 11:00:39 AM PDT by Doogle
The popular CBS reality show "The Amazing Race” is under fire for featuring an episode set in Hanoi, Vietnam, where contestants go to a B-52 Memorial, which is the wreckage of an American bomber plane shot down during the Vietnam War, to find the next clue in their televised round-the-world journey.
In the episode, the twisted metal of the downed plane is treated as any other prop, with a bright ‘Amazing Race’ ‘Double-U-Turn’ signed planted in front of it, signifying to contestants the next phase of their scavenger hunt.
The show also had contestants learn a song that was performed for them by children in front of a portrait of North Vietnam communist leader Ho Chi Minh, with subtitled lyrics that included “Vietnam Communist Party is glorious. The light is guiding us to victory.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
ping
Who’s going to host the show? Jane Fonda?
that’s next
LBJ should have done to Hanoi what Curtis LeMay did to Tokyo.
What company will sponsor this show? When will it air?
I am sure that the surviving family members of the Air Force KIAs would be disgusted at the use of their loved ones as TV props.
they should have had a cardboard cutout Of John Kerry at the door of the plane where they tear a medal off his chest as the voucher
It was last Sunday's show (3/17/2013).
Jane Fonda will co-host with Joan Baez and John Kerry. Did you know that John Kerry was in Viet Nam?
Back in 2008, the Amazing Race had on display the flight suit John McCain was wearing when he was captured.
A U.S. Air Force B-52 flies over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during commemoration of 50th anniversary of the war on May 28, 2012 in Washington, More than 58,000 names of the servicemen who were killed or missing in the war are engraved on The Wall. The B-52 bomber was used extensively during the Vietnam War. UPI/Pat Benic
The wreckage of the B-52 is there and has been turned into somewhat of a tourist attraction.
Is it better to be seen and noted - or never seen and forgotten?
A lot of VN vets are returning to VN in their twilight years and they tend to go to places like that.
Besides - the US has hauled all kinds of War Trophies back from all over the world. Some of those armored vehicles had their crews killed in them.
I watched that episode, and hoped that a contestant or two, or perhaps the mc, would say a few words of respect and remembrance.
If that happened, it was not shown. I found myself wondering who the pilot(s) were. It would have been good to have that mentioned.
We are a silly nation, overall, playing double U turns where a good man or men went down in flames trying to staunch the flow of communism. It was a sad commentary on the state of our nation, or at least our nation’s entertainment, today.
I like Amazing Race, it’s a clean show where you learn things, have a bit of adventure, see some real competition, get to know some people. But this was really disconcerting.
Next week, how about a carnival on the graves at Arlington? /s
ANDERSEN AFB, GUAM ARC LIGHT MEMORIAL
)
The Arc Light Memorial at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, is dedicated to the 75 men who lost their lives flying B-52 missions against Communist forces in Vietnam between 18 June 1965 and 15 August 1973. Called Arc Light missions, these almost daily sorties required crews on temporary duty from their home bases in the United States to fly B-52’s each carrying up to 60,000 pounds of bombs. Operating from Andersen, U-Tapao Airfield, Thailand, and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, they performed conventional bombing, direct air support, and interdiction missions.
The Arc Light Memorial was originally conceived in late 1973 by Lt Gen George H. McKee, Eighth Air Force commander at the time and headquartered at Andersen AFB, as a memorial to Maj Gen William J. Crumm, an earlier Eighth Air Force commander, who was killed on 7 July 1967, flying an Arc Light mission.
General McKee, with concurrence from General John C. Meyer, Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Air Command, later expanded the concept of the memorial to include all crew members who had lost their lives flying Arc Light missions.
http://www.306thbw.org/306thhistory/history_GuamMemorial.htm
..not to play games sing and dance
>>Some of those armored vehicles had their crews killed in them. <<
Indeed.
We are collectively better for remembering with accuracy. It is only liberals who need to rewrite history to match their commentary.
Conservatives remember and use the real lessons of real conflict.
On our tour of Vietnam in 2004, they took us to the museum and they said that the “American Enemy was coming” on the video. All of us were American Military Tourists. It felt weird but that is what they thought at the time (1960’s and 1970’s). It was an old propaganda film. Oh well they love us now. It is cool to see the beauty of Vietnam today. We did that! We should be proud that the Amazing Race can even film in that country. The reason??? The United States!!!!
From what I could research, mostly comments on travel and hotel sites, it is an extremely obscure relic of the war, even the locals had forgotten. It sits in a sort of reflective pool amidst an old apartment complex.
I was far more bothered by the play/performance part, where the contestants had to sit through some insipid “Vietnam is great, the glories of socialism will live forever” Communist dogma song.
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