JAG CENTRAL

From USA Today, this story which reports on the response of military pilots to the conviction of CW3 Rogers (which I told you about here) for the "hot-dogging" negligent homicide of one of his passengers in his UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter:

Some pilots bristle over challenges to how they fly, a retired Marine Corps judge says.

“Hot-dogging is not necessarily negligent,” said Patrick McLain of Dallas, who presided at courts-martial. “You need a person who's bold and daring and courageous. It rubs against the grain to have this sort of nitpicking oversight.”

A retired Marine fighter pilot, Kris Elliott of New Orleans, said, “Anybody who says they haven't hot-dogged as a pilot probably isn't being truthful.”

ANALYSIS: I couldn't agree less. Blackhawk pilots are not engaging the enemy; they are inserting troops who will be engaging the enemy. They are, for lack of a better term, bus drivers. Courageous bus drivers, mind you, for they have to fly those buses into a hornet's nest of bullets. But bus drivers none the less. There is no need for the "top gun" tactics that fighter pilots often must use. You can conduct terrain flight and "nap of the earth" flight WITHOUT excessive bank angles or high g-force maneuvers. Even when attempting to break contact from a firing unit on the ground, high g-force banks at high rates of speed are only necessary for the couple of seconds it takes to outfly the enemy's maximum effective range or find cover and concealment. "Hot-dogging" IS negligent, especially when the enemy situation doesn't warrant that kind of flying.

On the other hand, I also feel that in most of these cases, a court-martial is not necessary. One source in the report agrees:

But serious criminal charges such as those against Rogers are unusual. Aviators more commonly face quiet administrative proceedings that include warnings and temporary grounding.

“As long as they don't embarrass the government or hurt anybody, they'll typically be counseled, and that will be the end of it,” said law professor Michael Noone at Catholic University. The retired Air Force colonel has prosecuted and defended pilots in crash investigations.