Interesting story. Makes sense since the XMSN is so much closer.
Reminds me of my brother practicing emergency eng out landings with some spare time/fuel after a cross-country.
He setup for a nice approach in a C172 into a man-made dry river, in Texas. At about 50 ft AGL, he suddenly became uncomfortable with his lack of view over the canopy and his nose-high attitude (probably in reverse command).
Sensibly he decided to terminate the approach, but in his "hurry", he neglected to add power first, and instead retracted the first notch of flaps, thus dumping his lift.
He ended up upside down in the field, but thankfully without injury (if you don't count the C172).
He now flys Harriers (quiet carefullly) for the Marine Corps.