Enlisted pilots, an untapped resource?

[MAKO69 186]

I have always felt that the military could be missing out of some potentially good NCOs that could do the job just as well as COs. Thier are arguments for both sides, with 4 plus years in school and preflight and flight training comes age and maturity (most of the time). Hitting the USAF sqauds and fleet at about 21 or 22 yo as opposed to 25 or 26 yo for the fully collegiate trained counterpart. What are your thoughts?

 

just a few articles on the subject

US NAVY USMC Enlisted

Article enlisted

MC Pilot

My link

Edited May 13, 2012 by MAKO69

[+streakeagle 871]

The US Army has a high school to flight school program for helo pilots. Of course, good people are good people regardless of whether they went to college or not. But the US Army still makes the pilots go to warrant officer school rather than have enlisted pilots. I am not sure why the military believes only officers are capable of operating aircraft. Generally, the number of pilots needed is very small compared to the overall force, so pilot selection is an "elite" filtering process and by establishing officer criteria, you are already filtering out a lot of candidates. But, if there are pilot shortages, why would you set the bar too high? Hence the Army high school to flight school program that can more rapidly fill helo pilot slots. Even then, they have trouble finding enough qualified candidates based on physical and mental aptitude tests.

[+ST0RM 145]

Apparently, I'm too stupid to fly a plane and do not understand the complex world of CONUS/International navigation and flight rules. But if my crew violates any of the said rules, guess who gets Q3'd along with them?

 

Gen Swartz said as much in an interview a few years back.

 

By Scott Fontaine - Staff writer

Posted : Sunday Oct 10, 2010 14:23:26 EDT

 

Gen. Norton Schwartz again shot down suggestions the service will turn to its enlisted force to pilot unmanned aircraft.

 

The Air Force uses its unmanned aircraft for firing missiles — unlike the smaller, often-weaponless drones the Army flies for surveillance missions, Schwartz said at an Oct. 6 speech to government employees in Washington, D.C. The Army allows enlisted soldiers to fly unmanned aircraft, while its warrant officers fly helicopters.

 

The Air Force, though, allows only officers to fly unmanned planes. Some engineers and security forces airmen occasionally operate Army drones for force-protection purposes.

 

“The reality is that the Army operates [remotely piloted aircraft] platforms on a very tactical mode — close-in, relatively small platforms,” Schwartz said. “These are not strategic.”

 

He offered as an example the recent delivery of RQ-4 Global Hawks to overseas airfields in Guam and Italy.

 

“I would argue there isn’t an Army remotely piloted aircraft operator that has a clue about how to operate in international airspace,” he said. “This isn’t a pejorative comment. I’m just saying what the reality is.”

[+HomeFries 29]

Funny that the USN used to have enlisted pilots. When my dad was in the Korean War, he mentioned seeing Chief Petty Officers with wings, and also that the same CPOs would often get brevet promotions to Lieutenant, then revert to CPO when going back to a reserve status because a CPO was less likely to get RIF'd than a LT.

[exhausted 55]

You guys are missing the point.

 

Spots for enlisted pilots only open up when there is a large economic demand on training/commissioning a large number of aviators in a very short time.

 

Let's look at the current payscales:

 

E-6: $2,318 per month, base pay

O-1: $2,828 per month, base pay

 

Now let's look at an E-7 and an O-3, in a couple year's time:

 

E-7: $2,925

O-3: $4,275

 

And in 5 years time:

 

E-7: $3,185

O-4: $5,371

 

This is why enlisted members of the military have been given wings in past conflicts, and in pinches such as the Interwar-Period 1919-1940, according to (Ret) Gen. Krulak, USMC, author of "First to Fight."

Edited May 23, 2012 by exhausted

[+ST0RM 145]

My point is that they have an untapped resource of Enlisted Aviators that could pilot the UAS instead of sticking some new Lt with it out of UPT. Do you think they will give it their 100%? I dont, because I've seen it.

 

Flight Engineers, Boom Operators, heck even some Loadmasters have the flight skills already from doing the job. They are nabbing some nonner out of his office and sending them into training.

 

I'm not all of us are qual'd, nor should all of them go to Enlisted. Just don't slam the door and write us off.

[exhausted 55]

The Marines have enlisted members fly UAVs.

[Toryu 156]

Germany used to have NCO Pilots up into the 70s.

The programme was, however, discontinued.

 

During the war (WW2), there even used to be pilots with Private-ranks.

 

When the Starfighter-Crisis hit, the NCOs were slowly phased out with the ending of their regular careers as one result.

This was due to Germany's three-branched educational system, as NCOs usually had come out of a lower educational grade (2nd branch as opposed to the officers' 1st branch).

[Derk 265]

In the beginning of the F-104 period the KLu stll had quite a number of Sgt. pilots, somewhere later on during the '60's they decided all pilots had to be officers.