Especially when flying nap of earth profiles, with pilots who honestly believe,
“If you don’t come back with branches in your skids, you are not flying low enough.”
I had on a couple of occasions to fly back seat in an OV-10 Bronco in SEA and actually was flown between canopy layers of the jungle a couple of times. We returned to base and all those fire flies I saw were damn corrosive for some reason.
Combat experienced pilots are a blessing and resource that should be nurtured and preserved ........and learned from !
Just my opinion of course.
I saw an amusing training/demo film back in the late 1970s from a The Russians Are Coming! exercise in Europe.
The camera was near the treeline in a large open area, near a farmhouse; watching, you see a helicopter appear over the trees, NOE, settling down to a very low hover behind the farmhouse. Someone hops out of the helicopter, runs up behind the farmhouse, looks around the corner, sees nothing of concern, and motions to the helicopter to come-along.