Is not the price of progress the fact that the entire top heavy edifice and
drastically reduced capability, which the brighter guys designed and got noticed
in, is about to be sh1t canned?
It would have happened anyway, 'top heavy edifice' or not. And how is the capability drastically reduced?
The OCU became painfully long due to being co-located with C Flight (guess
who gets priority?), poor serviceability,...
Not that it really makes much difference to anything (surely this thread is about the future rather than the past?), but your facts are largely wrong. For a start, the OCU isn't 9 months - except for one course just after the move to Valley where severe problems with SKIOS made everything grind to a halt. The course lasts between 5 and 7 months depending on how many students there are, and how many other tasks the OCU has to juggle at the same time.
The flying rate at the OCU is certainly affected by poor serviceability at times, but there are many other factors - crucially, insufficient staff, particularly rearcrew. Other problems include, but are not limited to, weather and restrictions on movements caused by the FJ operations at Valley (noone was in the least surprised that Bristow dropped all the mil bases like a hot brick!).
and a dogged reluctance to entertain
the thought of fast-tracking
experienced guys through.
Please explain how to do this - as in which parts of the course the experienced guys could skip. You are, of course, talking about experienced guys with no SAR background because you're well aware that there are refresher courses tailored to suit those with past SAR experience.