You're absolutely right about the pulling of the fangs of the new Wos. I was at fort hood not long ago and they had a static display of Helicopters with w1' and young W2s. After chatting a while and walking the line A LTC asked me what I thought. I told him" You've produced a fine crop of 3rd LTs. He was shocked at my answer, but I still thought 'Wait till they get to W3 or W4 and the mustang in them will come out".
And the damned guys up front had better learn to listen to the guys in back or they won't live long in a real fight. A fine example of what you said was the idiot who got a regiment of apaches shot to hell during iraqui freedom when they hovered over the bad guys and armed pesants thinking to fire their missiles 4 or 5 KM ahead at tanks. I asked a Major in Charge of Ft. Hood Training if he's ever read a book or talked to some old warrant about such shit. It is sad that the lessons learned in blood will have to be learned again someday because idiots have a promotion system that encourages lockstep to some idiots plan.