Golfer,
Without knowing all the facts, all I'll say is don't be too sure about that. A guy I know punched from a jet that went out of control due to a nut that was installed without a cotter pin, and the wing CC nearly ripped his head off before the investigation was completed. In fact, the cause of the mishap wasn't even determined until the last days of the investigation and was largely a lucky find. If someone hadn't noticed the missing bolt and no sign of the pin/safety wire, the pilot would have roasted even though he did everything right and saved not only his own life but the life of his WSO.
Everyone's on edge in the military nowadays and the top leadership always wants someone to focus the blame on. Always. If there isn't anyone else to blame, a lot of times someone decides that it must be the pilot's fault because like a ship's captain, in the end it's his responsibility to safely conduct the flight.
The accountability pendulum has swung full scale to the ludicrous side... There is a new voluntary USAFE program "combat wingman" where people are supposed to have a buddy to help them keep out of trouble, avoid DUIs, etc. Nobody in their right mind will participate however because it's only a matter of time before someone who did NOTHING WRONG is prosecuted for someone else's crime simply because they were supposed to be their "combat wingman".
A pilot I know got a formal reprimand for... get this... doing nothing wrong. A group of young aircrew, some pilots, some WSOs, 3 Lts and a captain, went out to a pub. One of the Lts was the designated driver so he applied the common sense rule of thumb, one drink per hour, padded it by 2 hours, and they figured it was a good plan. The driver had one or two drinks, and about 4 hours later they drove home. On the way back, they got stopped by the police for something stupid, a busted tail light or something, and the driver blew a very low number on the breathalyzer. By default that means they all get hauled off to jail for blood tests. The blood test comes back well below the legal limit, and they're released.
The Captain decided he'd be a good officer and report the incident to his superiors just to make sure they heard it from him first. The end result was all 4 got formal reprimands and the Captain got particular attention for not exercising the judgement in according to his position as the ranking officer in the group, even though no crime was committed, they had a plan to safely go out and come home, and they followed through with their plan.
WTF, over?
Well, that's the state of "accountability" in the US military. It's ludicrous and it covers not only DUIs, but operational mishaps as well. Any time something goes wrong, even if it's a simple mistake that has zero real consequences in terms of injury or damage, someone is going to roast.
I blame congress for putting our senior leadership into the position of having to demand this kind of pseudo-accountability and micromanagement, but I'm just a pawn like every other pawn so my opinion doesn't mean crap. I just have to cover my prettythang and try to cover for anyone working for me because I have no confidence that anyone above me will stick their neck out on my behalf. Some commanders are better than others and there are a few supervisors and commanders that I trust without question, but they're in the minority.
