Well I guess you're privy to a whole different set of guys than I am at NR, etc....
I'm just talking to guys that are now with the 5th Fleet Naval Station in Bahrain, an officer at the anti terrorism battalion in Camp Lejune that's going to the National Defense Univ., a JAG from 29 Palms and another CH-53 driver from the east coast that might know a little about the Osprey.
Those guys are 2 Colonels and 2 Lt. Colonels. Some of the NCO's I've talked to crewed for the CH-53 wingnut.
I'm sure that some of them are full of bovine excrement and I might have heard them wrong cause we were talking about family, duty stations, favorite beer, favorite blonds, longest legs, guns, hunting and other crap. However I do seem to recall that those were the words I heard when I mentioned the Osprey and they weren't kidding when they told me it wasn't pilot error and that it was a software problem.
They also mentioned that there have been several "incidents" that never made the papers.
Like I said, if you're calling bullsh#t on me. OK.
I'm not ever going to have to fly on one, in one or with one. I'm just concerned that my kid has an uncommon interest in doing what his dad, grandfather,uncles and cousins have done...join the Marines. We tend to do that, then go to college and the rest of our lives...or go to college and then join the Marines...for the rest of their lives.
I probably want what you want. A vehicle that provides the best delivery for guys to and from the field.
If the Osprey is that vehicle, great. If it's a money trough which is more of a trail for career advancement and post service "consultation" fees... then I'm gonna be a little p#ssed. Especially if it gets my friends killed. We all take that chance from the time you put your feet on the yellow footprints till you go out the gate for the last time. It's just I didn't want to die due to an "accident" or "software" problem.
I know that people die in the service from all kinds of stuff, I've got an acquaintance whose son was killed when a tire from a Blackhawk exploded in Turkey. Safe from terrorist, not a bullet in anger....just a frickin tire blowing up. As I get older, I suspect I'm just more cautious and realize my mortality and that of my son.
Please provide, in detail, the actual hands on experience in the Osprey of these individuals that you have traded sea stories with, including logbook time for those that are rated pilots. Know anyone actually serving with VMX-22, VMMT-204, VMM-263, VMM-266, HX-21 or the 71st SOS? The fact that you posted that crapola from Harry Dunn, which is four years old and wrought with errors, says a lot about your credibility.
Also, I seriously doubt you have much intimate knowledge beyond the fat chewing stage about the behavior of Dick Cheney and one David S. Chu while they were in the Office of SECDEF back in 1989 or the ties the Cheney family had to Sikorsky which played a major role in his push to try and kill the Osprey and have the Corps buy UH-60s.
By the way, who is John Sarno or Tom Carter?