Rescue and recovery agencies typically calculate their operating expenses in big bucks.
Use of a Navy frigate and four California Air National Guard aircraft cost taxpayers $663,000 to rescue the Kaufman family from a disabled sailboat 900 miles off Cabo San Lucas.
The Navy's $216,000 and Guard's $447,000 shares did not include personnel expenses because (duh) they're on duty 24-7 and get paid anyway.
Hey, don't frigates and the planes and helicopters sail and fly great distances routinely during nonemergencies?
And don't taxpayers routinely pick up those tabs for fuel and provisions as a cost of doing day-to-day business?
Yet there are penny-pinching Americans who would hand the Kaufmans a bill for $663,000. And similar bills for Americans rescued in natural disasters.
Publically supported emergency responders aren't just police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians. They're also soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.
Bless 'em all. (20 APRIL 2014)
