GK121,
I think you're taking yourself far too seriously. The guys that wear the helmet covers outside of the war zones are basically just posers; the 'look, I've been somewhere hot and I'm going to let everybody know' types. On my VMA we had one but his posing didn't last too long and he ended up with the reflective taped hats, just like the rest of us. Having a camouflaged cover over your reflective hat is just stupid if you're operating from a ship and not going feet dry. The whole idea of the tape is to make you visible in the ocean if you end up banging out and blending into the sea is not high on the list of survival priorities. Removing it is easy should you be conscious, not having to ups your chances.
As for being a rifleman first; well that's good in theory but doesn't work so well in practise. Sure, everybody qualifies on the range and keep current with their personal weapons but the chances of leading a bunch of Devil Dogs, having ejected from your AV8 and landed in the middle of a leaderless platoon are pretty much zero and, as has already been alluded, the average squadron Joe has about as much idea of leading ground troops in a ground skirmish as I do on rocket science.....which is not a terribly large amount
Still, give me a II+ to play with again and I'd even wear the shirt-lifting scarf that goes with his helmet cover
Edited to add: Yep, Orca, the HUD ball was inertially driven and fed the yaw stab and shakers. Why do I remember such trivia and can't recall the stuff I'm meant to know?