Cavalry:horses::SysAdmin:helos

ARTICLE: 14 Americans Die in Afghan Helicopter Crashes, By DEXTER FILKINS, New York Times, October 26, 2009

Old story, and I wrote a Scripps column to this effect: when, in the past, we suffered such losses with tactical aircraft, the Pentagon would spend money like water to figure out the problems and fix. But with fixed rotary, no such priority ever seems to emerge.

I do remember vividly flying high up in the mountains in central Afghanistan in late 2007 and it struck me that the helos were working overtime in that high-altitude (less air to push), plus the pilots were always hugging the landscape and flying so fast to avoid taking any rockets. I hear that all the time from the industry: that is one tough environment to be working helos so heavily, and yet, force structure-wise, there's no question fixed rotary is the long pole in the tent of operations.

The SysAdmin rides in a helo.