Air Force evaluating enlisted pilots.

Shepherd said:
When I got to my squadron at Eglin in 1970 we had a Chief Master Sgt who was the go to guy for everything. He was a WWII, and Korean War vet and was just back from his 3rd or 4th tour in SEA when I arrived on base.
Without a doubt he was one of the coolest, most totally together guys I ever served with. He sort of took me under his wing when I arrived, and kept me on the straight and narrow. Did I mention he was a full-blooded Ogalala Sioux?
So one day the Squadron Commander (my GIB) comes in the ready room and tells us all that the Chief is retiring and we all need to report in full dress uniforms tomorrow. NO EXCEPTIONS. As if anyone would bail on the Chief.
The next day the entire Wing is out on the flight line in the hot Florida sun, marching in review for the Chief who is standing there dressed in his finest with more medals than a North Korean General, and wearing the rank of Brigadier General. we are all gob-smacked! After we are done parading, the Secretary of the Air Force pins another medal on him and announces that the chief has been reinstated to the highest permanent rank he was entitled to hold, and retired with full rights and privileges etc, etc.
It turns out the Chief enlisted in Canada in 1939, flew Spitfires and Hurricanes, until the U.S. entered the war. He then went into the Army Air Corps and flew P-38's and P-51s, 2 tours in Europe and one in the Pacific. He was an Ace and a Lt Col by the end of WWII.
When the war ended, racism reared it's ugly head. Someone in the Pentagon didn't like native Americans and he was told if he wanted to stay in the military he had to accept a reduction in grade to Tech Sgt. So he did.
The legendary Chappie James (our former Wing Commander) went to Washington, and went to bat for the Chief and he got him the recognition he deserved. No one in the entire Wing knew anything about any of this. The Chief never, ever talked about it.
There was one hell of an epic blow out in the squadron hanger afterward, I can tell you.
The next day our "Chief Brigadier" found me hanging out in the Nav/Radio/ECM shop ( I used to shameless bribe the enlisted guys, because I was one for my first year in the Air Force). He gave me a pair of his wings "for luck".
They must have worked, because I'm here to tell the tale.
Click to expand...
When you study the retirement system, you'll discover it is based on the highest rank held times the years served.
 
http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2017/December 2017/Air-Force-Not-Planning-for-Enlisted-Combat-Pilots.aspx

Air Force Magazine said:
The Air Force has no current plans to train enlisted airmen to fly combat aircraft, Air Education and Training Command clarified on Tuesday, December 12.

“The Air Force is not considering expanding enlisted pilot opportunities into manned aircraft at this time,” AETC spokesman Capt. Beau Downey told Air Force Magazine in an email.

The possibility was raised by a Dec. 7 Air Force Times story, which reported that “a new pilot training program … will include enlisted airmen—and could eventually lead to them flying combat aircraft.”
Click to expand...

Oops.
 
The Air Force is going to run a test of using cutting edge training stuff to get 15 guys up to T-6 solo quickly. Ten non-rated officers and 5 enlisted members. The officers will get to go to 'real' USAF pilot training, the enlisted will go to their regular jobs. This is an experiment, and will be conducted by a detachment at my home base of Austin Bergstrom (KAUS).

This test is probably related to a number of schemes the USAF is looking at to try and speed up their flying training pipeline.

More details here.

The USAF does have a handful of enlisted UAV pilots, who did get some real airplane flying as part of their training.

I must say that while any monkey can be taught to fly (look around here!), training enlisted pilots would exacerbate the USAF's pilot retention program rather than help it.

USAF pilot training comes with a ten year commitment after graduation. The pilots the USAF is losing are mostly Majors and Lieutenant Colonels. These are the experienced guys, the flight commanders, weapons officers, instructor pilots, ops officers, etc who are the heart of any USAF squadron. There is almost no risk of pass over to Major anymore unless you're criminal because the USAF has gone to 100% promotion to O-4.

They are also among the most highly paid members of the U.S. military, what with flight pay and continuation bonuses of up to $35K/year. And the new retirement plan is expressly designed to encourage members to separate at 12 years anyway.

Currently large numbers of these pilots pull the handles after 11 to 13 years of service. You think an enlisted E-5/6 pilot (who can and will be detailed to pick up trash and pull grass out of the sidewalk cracks by his non-rated First Shirt) is going to be any more likely to stay on?

I think not.
 
Regarding Enlisted pilots in the USAF (DISCLAIMER: I'm Enlisted aircrew w/17yrs time in service): Can we do the job? Yes. Is it a good idea? Maybe. For a program such as this to take hold and work, there needs to be a HUGE culture shift internal to Big Blue, both on the E and O side of leadership. As stated by @EvilEagle , the USAF has a retention problem, not a recruiting one. Creating Enlisted pilots won't solve any of this. A longer term solution may be rejuvenating the WO program, but the E-9 union will be fierce opposition to that (The E-8/9 pay grades were established to replace WOs).

As far as retention goes with Enlisted yoke actuators, I have no idea how to approach that. My coworkers and myself (a group of 6, all of which are between 17-23 years TIS) have debated this over lunch. My take is personally, If I were afforded the opportunity, I'd gladly give another 10-13 years to Big Blue. I am a minority in that camp. Yes, if you make E-5/6s pilots, and not have a rigid retention plan in place, they will most certainly pursue the pot of gold at the end of the aviation rainbow.

This pilot program being discussed is no more than an exercise to prove even the lowest of the unwashed masses can be taught to fly, justifying reducing the training timeline for the traditional O's. Having seen my share of young LT co-pilots come fresh out of UPT, PLEASE don't reduce the training pipeline! They need all the help they can get! ;)
 
I don't think a WO route would solve the AF retention problems either. The Army is losing warrants to the civ sector and they are short pilots in pretty much every airframe even FW.

All of the services have really three primary issues in retaining pilots. First is the additional duty / non aviation training nonsense. Fortunately for WOs, it's not nearly as bad as the RLOs have it. It's still a pain and it only got worse during my time in. I remember one day looking up from my "fire marshal" paperwork at my buddy doing his BS paperwork and saying "did you think we'd be doing this when we signed up???" Each branch needs to eliminate some of those BS duties or put it on the backs of others. I'll admit though, some of those duties and training events are necessary but if the job only entailed your MOS "warrior duties," they wouldn't have a pilot shortage.

The second problem is the actual op tempo of doing the job. Some of it is due to fatigue but some is just the job having gotten old. When you're young, you look forward to freezing in a tent at CMTC / NTC, running around with camo paint on your face and hoping into a multimillion dollar helicopter. As time goes on, it gets old deploying overseas every other year. It gets old doing countless computer exercises. It gets old taking days to plan a mission only to get cancelled. Etc, etc, etc.

Finally, when you look at pay in the civ sector vs military, it's hard to keep good people around. For the most part, the experience you get in the military will leap frog civilian counterparts into a high paying job. Overseas stuff will pay twice as much as military pay. Even jobs like mine which pays roughly the same as my CW3 pay, I work a fraction of what I did in the Army with no additional BS. You even have pilots leaving the Army on the "rotor to airline" program and at least the first few years, taking a pay cut. They'll recoup their loses in the long run and QOL will ultimately be better.

Personally, I wouldn't have traded my Army experience for anything. I knew what I was signing up (minus additional duties) and the Army held up their end of the bargain. I got paid good money for free training that I used after retirement and have lifetime benefits after only serving 20 years. Pretty good deal even with all the commitments of being an officer/aviator.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top