1. Don’t we graduate almost a thousand officers from the Air Force Academy each year - could not more of them be this kind of pilot?
2. Do we use fully trained fighter pilots for Air Force drones?
3. How about Warrant Officer pilots? The Army has had warrant officer helicopter pilots for years and they are first rate.
It seems to me that this must be a planning failure by the Air Force brass. There are LOTS of young Americans who would love nothing more than to be a fighter pilot.
Heaven forbid we ever need to mobilize with this kind of “can’t do it” mentality. There are some things we legitimately cannot do (e.g., civilize the Middle East) but there are others that should be pretty easy if we are willing to try hard enough and devote enough resources.
You’ve got to be smart to do this. The AF guys I knew who flew were all engineers of some sort. PolySci and Women’s Studies concentration don’t have the skills to do this.
For some time now, the AFAcademy has downplayed the pilot as just another job in the Air Force. In our new PC military, we cannot have any job that might be seen as more important or glamorous than any other least some be offended. Add that attitude to the fact that the AF has been terrible over the last 40 or more years in forcasting and planning for pilots, it is always boom or bust, you get the current situation.