Polish Joke

I'm Polish, so I consider myself able to tell Polish jokes with impunity. In this story, however, the joke is on the U.S. Army.

Lost US Army helicopters ‘drop in’ on unsuspecting Polish town of Gruta for tourist maps

Polish villagers got a surprise when six US military helicopters emerged from heavy fog to make an emergency landing in a nearby rapeseed field.

Onlookers responded “first with worry and bewilderment, then curiosity,” Stanislaw Raginiak from the office of the rural town of Gruta said yesterday.

Then several baffled-looking pilots walked into the town, asking for directions.

Seriously? They got lost? I can understand GPS failure, but didn't they at least have a map of the area? Things like this happened when I was in the Army thirty-something years ago, but I was hoping things had improved since then.

Q:  What's the most dangerous weapon in the Army?
A:  A second lieutenant with a map. 

The five Black Hawk helicopters and one Chinook heavy transport helicopter touched down while taking part in ongoing NATO military exercises in Poland and the Baltic States.

Local media said the emergency landing caused the helicopters to go off the radar, setting off the alert systems of emergency services and military police.

Residents, worried at first about the appearance of military helicopters, were relieved to learn it was just a bunch of lost Americans.

Search teams grappled to locate the missing choppers, initially scouring an area 20 kilometres away.

“Once they stepped off the aircraft, the crews explained they were forced to make the emergency landing because of bad weather,” Raginiak told AFP.

Around 40 villagers, including local officials, greeted the surprise visitors, who turned out to be friends not foes.

“They invited us to tour their aircraft, which were really impressive. I got the chance to sit in the pilot’s seat,” said county office intern Daniel Zurawski.

Residents of the village of Gruta, in northern Poland, pose for a photo with lost US troops and their Chinook helicopter in the middle of the village’s fields where six U.S. Army helicopters made an unplanned landing in poor visibility. Source: AP

In return, the local visitors feted the lost soldiers with cakes and coffee.

... the pilots were then issued with local tourist leaflets — printed in English — to help them re-establish their bearings ... the helicopters, which were part of the US Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigate, took off two hours later, kicking up clouds of dust.

No word on whether or not they loaded up with good Polish beer, kielbasa, and pierogies.