Concur . . . it all goes back to train like you fight . . . fight like
you train. The results of emphasizing safety to point of diluting the
quality of training bit us hard in the butt in Vietnam when it came
time to tangle air to air with the other guys.

I am in the process of reading "Palace Cobra" by Ed Rasimus (dog
gone job keeps getting in the way of my reading). He makes that point
very clearly in the book as others have before him.

While the helo was training in nap of the earth flying rather than air
to air, the lesson is the same. Fly low now and take a lot less losses
when the balloon goes up. I help pay for the helo (and the training)
too and I hope that after the review board and some more, non punitive,
instruction, they get him back up in the saddle. Unless this guy has
demonstrated a trait of sloppy airmanship, we have already invested too
much in this aviator to just dump him.

Blue skies to all

John