User talk:Truthkeeper65

November 2012
Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia, as you did to Operation Halyard, without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear constructive and has been reverted. Please make use of the sandbox if you'd like to experiment with test edits. Thank you. ◅ PRODUCER  ( TALK ) 21:59, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

This is my first time doing this so please bear with me.

The article on Operation Halyard takes on an anti-Serbian slant, containing either misleading information, or omitting information altogether.

The removed quote is presented in such a way as to give the impression not only that it is an offical position of the US military, but it also gives the impression that the report's author was there, at the time of Operation Halyard. (FYI - the author was 8 years old at the time of the mission.) That the endnote does not reference a year of publication creates further amiguity, forcing a diligent reader and fact checker to look further to the underlying unpublished source material, and to find out more about the author, as I did. As for any official position, the research report itself contains a disclaimer stating that the opinions of the report's author do not reflect those of the US Air Force, etc.) Furthermore, the quote is nothing more than the author's own conclusion - and a judging one at that - with no evidence to back it up.

As for omissions, for example, the author fails to mention that Germans would have killed any Serbian peasants providing aid to the US Airmen. (Sources: "Web of Disinformation" by David Martin, Harcourt; "Special Operations Executed" Michael Lees, Harper Collins). FYI - Michael Lees served in Yugoslavia in WWII, so his is a first hand account of the events there. That part of the article instead focuses only on unverified incentives given to peasants for turning in the airmen.

There is a second quote from the same research report speaking to the "feelings" of the rescued US airmen toward their Chetnik rescuers. This should also be removed. Again, there lis no evidence to support this, and it contradicts the above-noted sources, as well as an additional book from David Martin "Patriot of Traitor..", not to mention the literally life-long efforts of those involved with the mission to have the world recognize the efforts of Serbian soldiers and peasants over that time, most notably, Arthur Jibilian, a radio operator during the mission and Major Richard Felman, one of the rescued Airmen - not to mention the latter's own book, "Mihailovich and I." Another source is "The Forgotten 500" by Gregory Freeman, Penguin.

The only quotes in the article indicate that Serbs rescued the Airmen reluctantly, and for their own selfish reasons. Surely there is more than this perspective. Also, the quotes' single source is not only questionable as it is unpublished and improperly identified, it is possibly being used without the knowledge of the US military.

Strangely, although the sources that I refer to are referenced in the article (likely for some of their facts - how ironic), they are not considered at all in the making of any qualitative statements. As a result, perhaps the qualitative statements should then be removed.

I respectfully ask that you remove the 2 quotes in question.

Thank you
 * G'day Truthkeeper65, interesting tag. The appropriate place for this comment is the talk page of Operation Halyard. Regards, Peacemaker67 (send... over) 20:58, 22 November 2012 (UTC)