Times do change I guess....in days of yore....the cargo would have been an underslung load....the load would have been set down...released...and the aircraft moved over...landed and wounded/KIA or whatever people going out would have been loaded...and a quick departure made.
Our SOP was for the crew never...never... to get off the aircraft except in an absolute emergency. If you had to leave hastely....you did not want to leave a crewman on the ground....and have to operate the aircraft short handed or be forced to return to the LZ.
There are times externally carried cargo is a better idea than it being carried internally....when unloading time is critical due to the risk of being taken under accurate gunfire, mortars, rockets, or RPG's.
To gain airspeed...do we increase vulnerbility unloading at the LZ? Where is the trade-off point at which LZ Time outweighs Airspeed in transit?
Oh....I forget....we have been told Operational planning nowadays means we don't land in hostile LZ's like we did in that small Asian country far away.
The one thing that has not changed is the courage and dedication of the crews! In combat there are great acts of courage every day...some might even get noticed and it is good when they do.
I am confused however.....
Cave and Keech landed the Osprey on the first run and provided accurate enemy positions to friendly forces, which allowed support aircraft to suppress Taliban forces with rocket fire. Barfield-Smith helped unload supplies and called out targets to Cpl. Cederholm once the Osprey was back in the air.
Just this week, Vice President Joseph Biden, stated the "Taliban" is not our enemy in Afghanistan.....it is Al Qaeda that is the Enemy".
Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests. If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us.
Have the Marines not received the Word?