ShyGuy

The habits of taking shortcuts, poor knowledge base, poor skills in general develop early and don't go away unless one is in a very competitive, demanding environment.

The AF used to have Red Flag, theory was that most combat losses occurred in the first ten missions, so let's give them that experience BEFORE combat. Losses, about 1-3 per Red Flag, were considered acceptable because, "we'd have lost them anyway in combat". Gradually, politics took some of the losses seriously and made things safer, if less testing. GA can do the same thing. I lost three friends flying checks, freight still weeds out a few each year.

GF