Back during World War 2 there was a small cadre of non-commissioned officers that were pilots…..one of my uncles on my gather’s side was one of these he flew a P38…..
I bring this up because the service is having a hard time with their pilots……they are considering a return to a historical thing…….
Eugene Taylor remembers how eager enlisted airmen like him were to fly.
Taylor, who enlisted in 1968 and deployed to Vietnam, first worked as an avionics technician. Nearly a decade later, Taylor, a tech sergeant, became a T-37 and T-38 flight simulator instructor with the 71st Flying Training Wing at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. He became so adept that he was occasionally given the chance to fly the T-38, with permission from the pilot, during stateside flights.
It has been decades since enlisted airmen had the chance to sit in the cockpit. But as the Air Force faces the greatest pilot shortages since its inception, service leaders are contemplating a return to a model that includes enlisted pilots. A Rand Corp. study, set to be completed this month, is exploring the feasibility of bringing back a warrant officer corps for that purpose. And another, separate Air Force study is examining, in part, whether enlisted pilots could benefit from new high-tech training that leverages artificial intelligence and simulation.
I do not see any problem with this…..I am sure that some self-centered tool will find a problem with having a lowly NCO pilot a multi-million dollar aircraft….but hey…if capable then let them do it.
My day has been tied up so I want to end it while there is time to enjoy some of my day….TTFN….chuq
We also had NCO pilots in the UK, lots of them. The glider planes were almost all flown by them too. Brave NCOs all.
Best wishes, Pete.
A lot of P=38 pilots were NCOs in WW2……of course paying less salary….maybe that is a cost cutting program…..chuq
I don’t care if they don’t have enough training/skills to not fly into mountains…as long as there are fucking human beings in the pilot seat! NCOs? Fine! Reinstating the Draft to get more pilots? Fine! Forcing retirees out of retirement, or civilian pilots out of airline jobs, at gunpoint? Fine! (Ending war is a far less realistic option, so I didn’t mention it.)
Because if they can’t fill those seats with people, that’s just going to drive automation even faster…The Robot Apocalypse is coming more than fast enough already!
Watch the drone situation……people replaced by kids with joy sticks….chuq
And in 10 years, those kids will slowly be automated out of their remote-control-murder jobs. SKYNET Rules!!!
Saw a PBS documentary on kids dropping bombs with drones. There was an 18-19 year old girl who spent a couple years operating drones…some from in-country, some from an abandoned Arizona mall, if I recall. She spoke a lot about the shortcomings and over-selling of this kind of warfare. She also mentioned the secrecy and outright lies told about it. Public events were top targets during her tenure. “One of ’em gotta be a terrorist. And if one is, they all are!”
And yes. She & others have experienced the classic “veteran experience”. She’s got some PTSD and has been ignored & mistreated by a government who doesn’t want to pay her medical expenses. If I remember, they also threatened to jail her & others if they didn’t shut the hell up about their war & post-war experiences.
As they say, “Only the technology changes.”
Do you recall the name of the documentary? chuq
I could tell you she works in a massage clinic, to heal bodies rather than harm, but the title? Shit….
I’d look it up…but I already wasted an entire day writing a comment on Finding Political Sanity that got jettisoned into cyber space because…it resembled an automated response!
A fucking robot has determined that I’m a fucking robot!!! Next up…an automated drone strike!
I will find it but thanx for the input….chuq
Got it! It’s called…National Bird
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/national-bird/
Great and thank you my friend….chuq