Having worked for and alongside the Army, and serving them as 'customers', there is a general lack of appreciation of what it takes to run an airborne force of any description. This is not meant to cast dispersions on any AAC individual's own professionalism - it's a fault of your service in general. As long as the upper echelons of the Army continue to view helicopters as airborne landrovers and AT aircraft as airborne trucks or 4 tonners, this kind of thing will continue. You CANNOT run an effective airborne force whilst aviation is regarded as a secondary duty. To drag guys out of their pits at 0600 to go running after a late NVG detail is not only totally pointless (you don't need high levels of 'physical fitness' to be a flyer), but bloody dangerous if they have to fly that day also.
Notwithstanding what i've already said, the comment above which reads ' pick up the pieces after you lot have done your 14hrs' shows an extreme lack of professionalism and appreciation. This is typical of comments I would expect from soldiers (non AAC). If you want to be a big hero, fine. I'd rather stay alive so I can continue to operate the next day. Crew duty rules are there for a reason - if you don't know what that reason is, you have no place in the air.
This lack of appreciation at the highest level became obvious during the deployment phase of TELIC (which, I point out, was run by HQLAND, not PJHQ - at least at PJHQ there are elements of light & dark blue to pull the 'Melchetts' aside and 'educate' them). Dithering, stupid decisions, kneejerk reactions and a total lack of knowledge almost led to the complete collapse of in-theatre AT support (with which I was heavily involved), until certain elements were persuaded to wind their necks in and let people who knew what they were doing (RAF I must point out) run that element of the OP.
Unless and until the Army's movers and shakers realise that aviation requires the dedicated and undivided attention of its exponents, and drops this 'Soldiers First' bollocks, the days of the AAC as anything more than a flying club are numbered.