It appears there are some issues in US Army aviation that need to be addressed quickly.


https://www.foxnews.com/us/arm...ng-deadly-collisions

The Army has grounded its pilots until they complete mandatory safety training following a series of helicopter crashes that killed 12 soldiers in the past few weeks.

The move was announced by Gen. James McConville, the Army top officer, after a Thursday midair collision involving two Apache helicopters in Alaska that killed three soldiers.

In March, nine soldiers died in Kentucky when two Black Hawks collided.

Active-duty units will be required to complete the 24-hour stand down between May 1 and May 5. The National Guard and Army Reserve has until May 31, the Army said.

Sometimes a "safety stand down" is exactly what's needed. Flying Harriers we had several, but then again it was Harriers so kinda goes with the territory.

Ok I was a sailor so don’t flame me zoomies, but don’t they have air traffic control or someone in a fixed wing monitoring them to prevent conflict? Or do they (the choppers) get out of an airport area and they can fly anywhere at any altitude?

Cause I live near Ft. hood and I see choppers everywhere, but it’s obvious that they segregate at different altitudes..ie the ones I see going east are at 2000 feet above ground and he one’s going back toward Hood are at 1000…. Or is this just something they do near here because of all the chopper traffic?

FJB’s military mission : Keep focusing on toxic whiteness and wokie shit. And then with a straight face be totally surprised when tragic events like this happen frequently.

Then turn around and extend their service:

Army aviators, ready to leave the military, are told they owe 3 more years instead

Hundreds of Army aviation officers who were set to leave the military are being held to another three years of service after they say the branch quietly reinterpreted part of their contract amid retention and recruitment issues.

The shift has sparked an uproar among the more than 600 affected active-duty commissioned officers, including some who say their plans to start families, launch businesses and begin their civilian lives have been suddenly derailed.

“We are now completely in limbo,” said a captain who had scheduled his wedding around thinking he would be leaving the military this spring.

That captain and three other active-duty aviation officers who spoke to NBC News spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

As part of a program known as BRADSO, cadets commissioning from the U.S. Military Academy or Army Cadet Command from 2008 and 2020 were able to request a branch of their choice, including aviation, by agreeing to serve an additional three years on active duty.

For years, the Army allowed some aviation officers to serve those three years concurrently, and not consecutively, along with their roughly contracted seven or eight years of service.

In a phone call with reporters Thursday, Army officials admitted "errors" in the system, which they noticed a few months ago, led to the discrepancy.

"We are fixing those errors, and we are in communication with the unit leadership and impacted officers," said Lt. Gen. Douglas Stitt, deputy chief of staff of G-1, which is in charge of policy and personnel.

"Our overall goal to correct this issue is to provide predictability and stability for our soldiers while maintaining readiness across our force," Stitt added.

In letters the Army sent this month to the affected aviators as well as to members of Congress, which were obtained by NBC News, it said it “realized” after conducting a “legal review of this policy” that the three-year BRADSO requirement has to be served separately.

“This is not a new policy, but we are correcting oversights in recordkeeping that led some officers with an applied BRADSO to separate from the U.S. Army before they were eligible,” the letter said.

Thursday's media roundtable came after more than 140 aviation officers banded together to demand answers after learning one by one that they were being denied discharges due to outstanding BRADSO obligations beginning last fall.

More than 60 of them signed a letter to Congress outlining how they had been misled by the Army for years about the exact length of their service contract.

"It has been this unanimous uprising of emotions and frustrations," said another Army aviation captain, who is newly married and wanted to begin having children.

He called the reversal of a precedent an “injustice” to an already burnt-out department still regularly deployed despite the end of the longest war in American history.

"Yeah, the war on Afghanistan ended. There’s still a high demand for Army aviation," he said, while en route to another deployment. "We have units still in constant training or deployment rotations. They’re failing to recognize the human aspect."

The newlywed said it has been difficult for him and his wife to accept a three-year delay in starting a family.

"That was the big kick in the gonads," he said. "We wanted to start having kids, and we no longer can. It’s a stressor we didn’t plan to deal with."

Documents obtained by NBC News show officers were given conflicting information about their service obligations.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...rs-instead-rcna81796

quote:

For years, the Army allowed some aviation officers to serve those three years concurrently, and not consecutively, along with their roughly contracted seven or eight years of service.

The Army paid for my grad school; a 3-year commitment. Served consecutively.

Those "three years concurrently" were most likely based on the current (at the time) needs of the Army.

quote:

by agreeing to serve an additional three years on active duty

So, what's the problem? Someone got a break that you didn't? Life always ain't fair. You agreed to the add'l 3 years, however applied.

I saw 5 Blackhawks today in formation.

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
I saw 5 Blackhawks today in formation.

I saw the same thing yesterday and I was right near Ft. Campbell, KY.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Ok I was a sailor so don’t flame me zoomies, but don’t they have air traffic control or someone in a fixed wing monitoring them to prevent conflict? Or do they (the choppers) get out of an airport area and they can fly anywhere at any altitude?

I think for the most part these aircraft were working together, knowingly. Without all the details, the KY accident sounds like a midair while flying formation at night. I have no idea of what phase of flight it may of been, steady enroute, return to base, landing, or whatever.

I’d kinda lean that the AK flight was similar, the two were part of a coordinated exercise.

Backing up even more, it’s often a 2 hour brief before similar training events, detailed. Part of that brief(and earlier training) includes contingencies, the unexpected. The adage being, ‘don’t fly your aircraft somewhere your mind hasn’t already been’.

It’s alway the case, these military ops have a thinner safety veil around them than civilian or especially airliner operations.

We(most) may know the picture of the vintage plane tangled up in the lone tree in a field. The caption reads, ‘aviation while not inherently dangerous, more so than the sea, is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect’, (shortened version).

RIP best they can, terribly tragic for the families.

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
FJB’s military mission : Keep focusing on toxic whiteness and wokie shit. And then with a straight face be totally surprised when tragic events like this happen frequently.

I'm curious enough to wonder whether one of the pilots involved were "woke" hires that had a waiver or two in regards to aptitude specifically to show the new military as inclusive. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. The mental midgets at the Pentagon won't be happy until our entire military is full of fairies too afraid to fight. Too many times, I went to training safety briefs in the early 00's that focused more on "She's the man" type platitudes for the handful of females present than the actual safety of those involved in the training exercise being held. I can only imagine what a shit show it is now with all of the various groups vying for any bit of recognition they can get .

I saw on Fox that they were grounded a day or so ago. But from watching military flights on ADS-B you wouldn't know it. Maybe someone isn't telling the truth.

I've been part of these safety stand downs before, they're a complete joke. You just do it in the day you weren't flying anyway, so there's no actual decrease in daily sorties. This is a story for civilian press, you wouldn't even notice in a military flying squadron.