"LOL...that HAS to be a typo there...no way we lost 800 jet aircraft in 1954 alone, though it was dangerous to fly some of those..."
Really?
Originally posted by: em2vn
"Are you sure about that. I think they would have run out of pilots long before they ran out of airplanes."
Before I was born, my late Father had graduated from the USNA and after a year at sea on a Destroyer he went to NAS Pensacola for Flight training in 1955. From the time he got his wings as an Ensign to the time when he was a Navy full LT. around 1961 he was one of only two of his ten-man training section that were still living Naval Aviators. During the 1950s NAS Pensacola was graduating an average of around 2,000 trained Naval aviators per year. Lots of young Navy widows between Korea and Vietnam because of Cold War readiness.
dvwjr