[steve86]

“I’m surprised they knew how to fire up the engines.”

Yeah, that had to be a person somewhat familiar with jet turbine operation. Not necessarily a pilot.

[MrLucky1966]

Yeah, that had to be a person somewhat familiar with jet turbine operation. Not necessarily a pilot.

Come to think of it, many of them are educated, some educated here maybe. I know they also have lots of stupid grunts too but their leaders and mid levels have much more education. My neighbor (he was a Master Sergeant) was in charge of the repair shop for the A-7 when they were based at Pittsburgh for the PA Air National Guard. He knew how to fix them, fire them up and taxi the planes and even learned from the pilots to take off and even fly.

My BFF's father was a chopper mechanic, maintained Cobra Gunships in Vietnam but he was also part of a program where enlisted personnel (he was also a Master Sergeant) can become pilots and he also flew combat missions. The Army was so desperate then where they needed a lot of butts in the pilot's seats.