lol that's hilarious. But if you're going to do dumb illegal **** don't get caught.

I have a friend who was flying in a guard unit in the 60s and 70s. I've heard stories of him putting his wife in a flight suit, sneaking her into the last chopper away from the HQ, and taking her for a ride. Also claimed to have landed at the farm to fly mom and dad around

Good stories, may even be true

The desire for cervid antlers makes men do some strange things.

Those guys do a pretty great service for the state. It was a dumb decision for sure but I'm not sure who pressed charges or why. This seems like something that in the past would have been handled with a phone call and some kind act in return

The guys have to practice all aspects of flying landing being part of that, they didn't kill the animal to pick them up, nothing wrong here at all. It's like the stupid law that says you cannot harvest antlers or a deer you hit with your car. Damn thing damaged my car I ought to be able to put it in my freezer and/or display the antlers. Are they worried it will encourage folks to try and hit deer with their cars? As long as these guys did not tear up private property let it freaking go.

Shed collecting, especially for elk, is a big thing in some western states. Some sheds are worth a good chunk of change. FWIW, the practice is highly regulated to help control folks running around through the backcountry and also trespassing.

Montana has some very strict laws regulating antler shed collection in late winter months (something like Jan - April) on most public lands and WMA's etc. These laws were passed because people go absolutely nuts to collect the sheds. You can you tube how folks line up for days to get into these areas and literally go crazy to get those sheds because of how much money they are worth.
These same crowds of people also pay no heed to property lines and heavily trespass on private owned lands in their obsessed quest for the sheds.
Montana has some very stringent trespassing laws (like Texas) in place to protect private property.
The shed collection season is mainly to help protect the animals from harassment and the range itself as the late winter is when they are the weakest and the range is under the most pressure.
Sadly, whenever you have large amounts of money involved, people do stupid things to take advantage of such. People have been known to do all kinds of crazy stuff and break all kinds of trespassing and game laws just to get antlers to sell on black markets etc…..so laws were put in place to try and curtail that.
Yes it's dumb that if you hit a deer with your car that you can't take the antlers. But the sad thing is there are idiots that will purposely illegally kill a deer to get the antlers to sell them….so stupid people actions create similar stupid laws.
One only has to look at the ivory trade as comparison to understand.
I don't believe the Montana shed collection season is a factor in this case, other than it's specifically closed right now on public lands….but perhaps that adds to this case somewhat…..who knows. Regardless it's evident Montana takes illegal shed collecting and trespassing very seriously.
The NG pilot did a dumb thing. He knew the sheds were on private property. He probably could have contacted the landowner and got the ok to get the sheds if he would asked. I know if it was in my ranch I would have given them to him. ( I might have asked for a ride though)
I'm certainly an advocate and supporter of anybody wearing our country's uniform….. but he didn't use good judgment in his decision…..especially knowing how Montana looks at shed collection and trespassing.

So it would be ok for a private or corporate guy to land his chopper on a landowner's property and do the same?
There is no comparison to trespassing laws vs you hitting a deer with your car and the possession of the antlers or deer itself.
Unless you are saying Montana doesn't need trespassing laws?

I have no problem with the guy getting fined, having to compensate the landowner somehow and getting a serious slap on the wrist from his unit's HQ.

I don't think it's the end of the world and he shouldn't wind up with a record over it. It's not like he landed in the parking lot of the tiddy bar and went in for some shots and a lap dance.

I'm not familiar with military law or how something like this wouId normally be handled. Looks bad now that it made the news, but not sure how much that effected this situation.

Trying to think of something comparable for us normal people who don't have a helicopter. Best I can come up with is driving a company/work vehicle onto private property without permission to pick up sheds. If caught I would expect to get fired in that situation.

CT'97 said:

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I suspect he won't be fired. Because of the public nature of the situation I imagine they let the civilian court run it's course and determine their penalty then in a parallel UCMJ hearing determined a penalty for the actions. The severity of the civilian penalty can be taken into consideration, and often is, when weighing the military penalty but doesn't have to be.

My guess is he lost his pilot in command rating. If he keeps his nose clean and checks all the right boxes he'll get that back before long. Definitely slowed down his promotion to CW3, but if he's a good pilot it won't stop him. Remember you don't get pilots who can balance a wheel on the roof of a building while loading wounded in a fire fight by reining in their aggressive nature.

Just a guess, know a few NG pilots but don't know anybody up there.

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He probably gets a new call sign too.

Helo pilots are one area where a lot of the NG guys are as good or better than a lot of their active duty counterparts. Simply because a lot of them have been doing it for a long time, are also helo pilots in their civilian jobs, and thus get a ton more stick time. The guy flying Traffic Copter 5 is up for probably 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week. The guy flying the Life Flite bird is probably flying every day, too, and often at night.

And the NG crews who rescue stranded hikers/backpackers in the backcountry in states with lots of mountains, Montana being one of them - those dudes know what they're about. 10,000' up on the side of Mt Rainier in bad weather might be tougher than being shot at.