Mav said:
I was surfing the web and noticed alot of F-14 and F-18 crashes and fatalities, I find that very troubling. What do you guys think the causes could be. I'm thinking maybe the maintenance crews aren't doing a good job or the aircraft itself is not reliable. Thanks for the input.
One, this is probably its own thread...threadjacker!
Two, the greatest percentage of mishaps are due to aircrew error. This isn't to say they just drove it into the dirt, only to say that if they'd done something differently, it wouldn't have been a mishap. This is why weather is rarely, perhaps never, given as a primary factor, e.g. aircraft crashes in a t-storm--why did you fly into a thunderstorm? Given the fact that a much greater percentage of military flying (compared to civil aviation) is in treacherous flight regimes--e.g. low, fast, at night, over water, etc, the mishap rate is not that great.
Back to topic...the babysitting routine has gotten out of hand. TO some degree in the Corps, to a greater degree in the Navy. There is some box checking/CYA going on, along the lines of,"Well, admiral, it's not the command's fault he drove a motorcycle off a cliff, because he did sign this document saying he would wear a reflective vest..."
I'm more along the lines of treating Marines/Sailors like adults, THEN hammering them if they screw it up. Things like graduated curfews for deployed libbo kill me. I had a Marine who enlisted late in life and was a corporal at 32. It made me think, why can't a 32-year-old father of 2 stay out past midnight for gawdsake (Sgts and SSgt had till 0100, GySgt+ till 0200, Os till 0300 or something like that)? For that matter, an 18YO? If he misses ship's movement, lock him up and throw the key away. Until then, if you treat people like grown-ups, they usually return the favor.
