usmarinemike said:
Yes, I am a 2ndLt, but I've been around this gun club for a little while. I know how and why things work in the fleet. And on the air wing side no less so please don't pigeon-hole me.
I understand the second and third order effects you're speaking of, and I understand your convictions. However, any unit (aviation, comm, infantry, ANY unit) that has its combat readiness or effectiveness so seriously compromised by the loss of one Marine's presence is either poorly going about business or is systemically flawed. It sounds like a systemic flaw that is breeding a mindset of TRA rather than building a well rounded combat ready unit with a well rounded officer corps.
I read your credentials and figured you'd throw them around soon enough. You probably left the fleet as a Sgt and were promoted in MECEP. Your interaction with officers was probably at the lowest level (I'm assuming just company grade but I could be wrong, I have no idea what you did). But, I doubt you interacted with the volume of senior officers as an enlisted Marine as you will as a pilot. I don't want to pigeon-hole you, but I don't know if you're grasping the big picture.
I'll refer to the V-22 community because it's what I'm most familiar with. Each squadron has approximately 26-30 officers at any given time. Sometimes more, sometimes less. There are 2-5 LtCols, 8-10 Majors, 8-12 Captains and a few 1stLts. Most of the big quals (NSI, LATI, Flight Leadership, etc, Natops/Instrument Instructor) are held by the field grade and a few senior Captains. The pilots with those qualifications are the only people who can train the unqualified pilots in those various categories (only an NSI can give an initial goggle X or requalify a previously designated pilot, only a LAT instructor can teach LAT), or lead a flight of multiple aircraft. It takes a nearly herculean effort to create an NSI. It requires a considerable amount of external support, including an instructor from MAWTS in Yuma. There are only a few NSIs.
Resultantly the pilots with the quals are constantly flying, there's never enough of them, other squadrons always need to borrow them, etc etc. In addition to being so valuable in the aircraft and scarce around the community, these pilots are also running the squadrons. They are the COs, XOs, OPSOs, AMOs and so on. They are generally in their 30s and lower 40s. Without them in the fight, the squadrons "combat readiness or effectiveness" is compromised. That's how a squadron works. I can assure you that my squadron is not poorly going about business. We are not built around any single person, and everyone is in some respects replaceable. But we train and work up with the people we deploy with. Generally we do this for a few months and up to a year. We develop a battle rhythm and learn to work and fly together. It's what makes us successful. That's just the way it is. And if you think the system is flawed, you may seriously want to think about your chosen line of work before you get too far into it.
Our mindset isn't one of total risk avoidance. We simply aim to mitigate the unnecessary risks, like the silly pseudo-martial arts you guys are all hung up on, so we can more effectively train on and employ our aircraft in combat. Bottom line: Superfluous martial arts training is unnecessary for pilots. A baseline course like the tan-belt training at TBS is fine, but anything additional and mandatory is not. We are all Marines. We went through the same training as you did. Then we became pilots. Our mission has evolved. We no longer worry about hammer-fisting a Centralian in the Quantico highlands. Instead, we train to superimpose our unique set of skills over a weapon system and employ that weapon system against the enemy. MCMAP is potentially a hindrance to our effectiveness.
