A very good friend of mine is a freelance photographer. he always used to say that dealing with US bases was bizare (pre 9/11 though so may not be the same now). If you went to UK forces bases, you were met with instant suspicion, and "No you can't photograph that, of course it's secret" and "Stand on that spot till we can get an escort to take you to someone who will interview you to see if theres a good enough reason to take the required pictures" on just about everything. However with US bases it would always be, "Yes of course you can look, we'll give you a guided tour, would you like to see our latest expensive toy? is the pilot/soldier/sailor photogenic enough to illustrate your story"?

His opinion was that sooner or later  thed US was going to get into a situation like Iraq, and then they just weren't going to understand why noone loved them. His precise quote was that they were "almost the kind of army designed to be too nice and so ends up getting the shit kicked out of them in a bar fight".

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.