The article posted by wankel appears to do more harm that good in improving the public's image of pilots. Let's take a look at some of this through the average Joe's eyes. The article trots out the tired old .... "we're special, we spend so much time away from home" line. Umm yeah, so do long haul truckers, offshore oil workers, North Slope oilfield workers, traveling salesman, manufacturer's tech reps, merchant seamen, overseas construction workers, and many, many, other workers, many of whom spend more time away from home under less favorable conditions, with less time off for a lot less money. Your average non-pilot reader knows this and quite reasonably asks; "What makes pilots so special?"
Incredibly, the writer attempts to portray airline flying as fraught with dangers....please, Flying for a major 121 carrier is pretty safe as occupations go ... compare the statistics to construction workers, loggers, firemen, longshoremen, policemen, farm workers ... occupations that actually are dangerous. A number of accidents are mentioned to emphasize the dangers of being a pilot, but the writer seems oblivious to the fact that these pilots died surrounded by hundreds of passengers who died also. One is left with the impression that in the writer's view, it is the pilot's deaths which are the important aspect of these crashes, (The Price") never mind that in half the accidents mentioned, the pilots' actions were at the root of the accident. Sorry, it's going to be hard to sell the average joe on the idea that a pilot deserves a quarter of a million dollars a year because if the pilot screws up and kills all his passenger, the pilot gets killed too.
When the writer delves into his tirade on war, it seems that he thinks only pilots go to war and get shot at. When he's thumping his chest about flying Cobras in Vietnam, the guy reading just might not have been working on a master's degree, he have been down in that jungle, knee deep in mud getting his ass shot off in a war he didn't volunteer for. (pilots don't get drafted) If the reader saw combat service in any of the wars mentioned, he just might resent the implication that wars are won by pilots.
While I'm sure that it felt good to the writer to vent his spleen a little, I think your average non-pilot reader will be left with an image of pilots are arrogant boastful elitists. Maybe sending "open letters" such as this to the newspapers really doesn't serve our interests in the long run.