True and since no employer would take on the golden military pension it is very very unlikely to occur, however - don't ask don't get.
If we got taken on at our present salaries it would still be better than what is likely to be offered given the minimum experience requirements for co-pilots, winch ops and winchmen: 750 hours (no twin time required) for co-pilots; 1 year SAR experience for winch ops and 3 months (yes 3 months) SAR experience for winchmen!!!
It certainly won't be a seamless transition with those pitiful levels of experience but it will be a cheap one.
One can only wonder how a minimum experience crew would cope with the sort of job that a Valley crew had last weekend - NVG hover in a deep gorge with all 245 feet of cable out winching through the tree canopy - either stuff like that just won't get done or crews will get injured trying because they don't have the experience or training.
DfT need to put pressure on the contractor to take a large proportion of those mil crews that want to come across in the locations they are currently based. That way you get local knowledge and lots of experience and ability.