I'm an old Army guy who rose to the lofty rank of SP5 and who knows literally nothing about the Navy or about aviation.The most dangerous thing I was ever ordered to do in uniform was eat Army chow.
However...on the subject of "unlawful orders" I did my BCT in '69...after My Lai.We had a class in which an officer (1LT) touched on the subject and specifically said that one has no duty to obey an *unlawful* order.But strangely I don't recall him giving us a single example of an "unlawful" order.
Of course I don't want to see Navy pilots put in harm's way unnecessarily....I was only commenting on the "refusing" part.
I was a U.S. Army basic training battery commander during the mid-2000s. I gave the newer version of that class.
Unlawful orders are a little like porn, you know them when you see them. Some examples:
-Needlessly destroying civilian property (purposefully destroying something that has no military value to an enemy, like artwork)
-Causing unnecessary human suffering: shooting people in parachutes and/or lifeboats, destroying civilian crops or cattle to create a famine, ordering or encouraging rape, etc...
-Ordering or coercing people to debase themselves (coercing sex from a subordinate or a refugee, humiliating prisoners without a military purpose, etc...)
-Using military personnel or property for personal profit or criminal acts (ordering your official driver to take your wife shopping, directing subordinates to falsify records, etc...)
-In this case, it would be unlawful to order a pilot to fly an aircraft they, in their professional judgement, believe is not fit to fly
This is a big puff ... if the ride ain’t ready .. fails pre-flight you get to try again when it is.
JMHO