Hey guys, thanks for all the great replies. I settled on dropping an application, we'll see where it goes. As an aside, good points as far as skid future... especially with the new force design release and everyone coming back from their third pointless Okinawa "deployment" I think we'll see a lot more qualified dudes running from the community. Anecdotal, the peer group ahead of me of JO WTIs either all EAS'd from the squadron or dropped papers from their next billet. I think it's going to get bad in the next few years; a MEU as the most meaningful deployment opportunity is not great for retention. I love being a Cobra pilot, but I think the writing's on the wall for a LOS-comm only, no datalink attack helicopter with ASE from the mid 90s.
Anyway, thanks again. Maybe I'll have to learn to be an instrument pilot again after all...
Good luck. It sounds like you made the best choice for you and I think you made the right choice. Hope your effort pays off.