I can, however, say that I never met one I would trust.
They are macho and overbearing, but not bold, not gutsy, not truly tough in ways that might be inspiring, useful or worthy: closer to being a pack of whiny, backstabbing mamas’ boys."
Horse Pucky! In fact, Horse Shit!
And since I knew hundreds of fighter pilots, deployed with them, was shot at with them, lived with them in tents, worked with them as ALOs and in fighter test, drank beers with them - I know what I'm talking about. You obviously do not!
"There is another explanation for Mr R’s good relations: he got lucky. None of the fighter pilots he encountered found it expedient to stick a knife in his back."
I knew my fair share of total jerks. Fighter pilots have them. As a cop told me once, about a third of cops are assholes, about a third of teachers are assholes, about a third of miners are assholes. The exception, he said, were lawyers, and he figured about 75% of them were assholes.
Some of the finest men I've ever met were fighter pilots, including my Dad - WW2, Korea & Vietnam. And some of the biggest jerks were fighter pilots - but then, I've known hundreds of fighter pilots and only a few lawyers. I knew my share of jerks, but I wouldn't trade the decades I spent in fighters and flying with fighter pilots for ANYTHING.
I was a WSO. Maybe I was born to be one. Looking at a radar scope was as intuitive to me as looking out a window is for most people. But I flew with a lot of damn good men, and everyone I flew with was a fighter pilot.
“Horse Pucky! ... [expletives deleted, mostly to save space] ...”
Let me get this straight -
As an apologist for the fighter pilotry, is Mr Rogers saying that even when they behave childishly, we lesser mortals are still required to take them seriously?