You guys are feeling a little burnt because of something very simple. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
No man, that's not it at all. It's because
LEADERSHIP failed them/us. This is 100% a
LEADERSHIP problem, or perhaps lackthereof. If
LEADERSHIP tells a guy with gold wings to go do mission X with what he's got, he's gonna try. Even if he sucks at it, he's gonna try. Until
LEADERSHIP pulls the gun away from their head/fitreps and tells them they can chill and not worry about mission X, they're gonna keep trying. And we're gonna keep having this conversation.
LEADERSHIP needs to either commit to making HSC dedicated to being as good as the other guys, or scale back the mission creep and let them be great at what they should be doing. In the mean time, we're going to keep appearing as if we're half-assing it because, simply put, we don't have all the tools and resources to do it right. I mean we use a fucking grease pencil on the windshield to aim the M197 -- not exactly the same gear you're using to aim, is it?
Don't rag on HSC pilots for trying to do the best with what they've got. They don't have a choice to NOT do it. I signed up for HSC so I could do MEDEVAC and VERTREP, not so I could be Level IIIi in ASUW/SOF/PR. And yet I got every fucking qual because that's what was expected of me. Because we all wanted to contribute the most that we could with the gear and expectations we had been given. And maybe a little bit because shooting shit in the desert and wearing tan flight suits is cool.
Should they just let the 299s rot in the hangar? It's not the squadron's fault. It's
LEADERSHIP. They should have never bought those wings, rocket pods, etc if they didn't intend to actually let them do it right. But here we are and
LEADERSHIP shows no signs of changing the status quo. This is why my USAFR Chief Pilot texted me today asking if I knew this Navy helo JO who emailed him poking around looking to see if he could get on with our squadron. This is why HSC WTIs finish their commitment and peace the fuck out. This is why HT Instructors tell their students to go HSM.
Let
HSC HC go sling ice cream from deck to deck all day and you won't hear anyone complaining.