"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
Russian *White* helicopters, the analog to our ubiquitous,
yet never confirmed "black helicopters"?

A couple days ago the news mentioned Russians rescuing some
Russian (??) scientists at an Antarctic station. I think
the ice had broken loose from the continent.

Some video of the rescue showed the helicopters to be white
in color! I thought to myself that this is a rather
unusual color scheme for arctic work, where orange is more
typically applied.

Knowing the Russian penchant for secrecy and varying degrees
of paranoia, is this an actual official color scheme for an
arctic based chopper, or one dragged up for other purposes
being locally used?

Perhaps white helicopters from the former Nazi secret Antarctic
submarine base??!!!

Interestingly enough, and in all seriousness, the US Army once experamented
with the "white helicopter" bit. Rather stupidly, too. When my brother was
flying dustoff in Vietnam, some underemployed staffer got the bright idea
that if they painted the medevac birds white, then maybe the NVA would stop
shooting at them so much. It was not a very popular move with the crews, who
promptly labled them as "White Elephants". For good reason the idea did not
catch on beyond a couple of trial versions--one of which flew into a
mountainside with the loss of the crew. My brother was selected to
investigate the mishap, and in one of those strange twists of fate the world
sometimes tosses at us, during his review of the crew records found that the
crew chief on that bird was born in the same very small western North
Carolina town that he himself had been born in. Years later when I was in
the area I called my brother and got the guys name, then after a quick check
in the phone book ended up talking to one of his cousins; turned out his
parents were still alive but not in good health, so I didn't bother them but
the cousin said she'd stop by and tell them their son had not been
forgotten. Went over to the local courthouse and found the guy's name on the
county war memorial on the front lawn.

Brooks



SMH