Message posted by Magoo on August 11, 2000 at 21:45:58 EST:
I don't necessarily agree with Andre and Richard on this occasion. The idea of the 'Flag' exercises is to make them as realistic as possible. Most units actually train for the Flag exercises for weeks before deploying to Nellis or to Cold Lake - this means they are actually training for a training situation! A friend of mine who has flown at Green Flag said that the idea is to saturate the crews with as many threats and friendlies as possible in a relatively small area, and if there are accidents, well that's just part of it. It is generally not up to the exercise commander to suspend proceedings, but rather it is a decision for a unit commander on whether he wants to withdraw his unit from the exercise or not. Richard is correct when he says that it is unlikely that crews will ever experience the saturation levels in real combat that they see at Green/Red/Maple Flag, but this means the crews will be better able to cope if/when they do see a real combat situation. However, if the shit really does hit the fan and things 'get busy' in a near global or large regional conflict, then the crews will know what to expect! If the crews knew there was a 'suspension clause' in these exercises just because things were getting a bit 'hairy', then I doubt they would take it quite so seriously. However, if they know there is a slim chance that they could die there, then they're only going to be concentrating just that little bit harder! Obviously, if there was a major catastrophe like a crash in the suburbs of Vegas, then that would be a different matter, and proceedings would probably be halted. Magoo
In Reply to: Re: green flag mid air collision posted by Richard C on August 11, 2000 at 03:11:46 EST:
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