USAF Pilot Shortage Hits the T-38
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
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Fighter or bomber follow on no longer a guarantee if you're in the T-38 pipeline. The USAF pilot shortage continues... Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the services have had to get creative when dealing with personnel shortfalls.
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I was active USAF pilot from 73-80, reserves 85-87. My dad was a pilot from 42-64. You know what? Not a goddamn thing has changed.
I know a guy that selected C-141s out of the USAFA. Transitioned to C-17s and the same airline Wombat works for. Never had a desk job. Loved flying special ops around the world. Retired as an O5 in Charleston SC never having had a PCS. Heavy’s aren’t all bad…
Push for more recruitment in the reserve and guard of commercial pilots. Getting more time on larger aircraft can help the pilots with total hours and expand their list of rated types. The airlines may get annoyed at the scheduling but are required to accommodate it by law and do value the extra pilot training and experience at no cost to themselves.
I plan on talking to one of the local ANG wings this week, they fly KC-135s. In my younger days I would have wanted to fly nothing other than fighters, but now that I'm older (21) the thought of flying heavies is more appealing. I know they don't get as much attention as the fighters but they are arguably just as, if not more, important than the fighters.
I'm old enough to remember when a bunch of T-38 students got MQ-1s at assignment night circa 2007
There are no real shortages, unless the USAF is looking for quota fillers. Not my problem. Maybe congress should change the laws, then do drafting for diversity. That would also not be my problem.
Sounds familiar. I was Class 85-07 at Columbus- first guy to solo, high FAR qualed, got a tanker. Had to wait to fly BFM until I got out and got a Yak 50.
I was a USAF pilot from 83-07. I went through the generalized UPT back then. T-37s then T-38s. Wound up in a C-130 for my first tour. Second tour was as a T-38 IP. I got medically grounded for two years and when I got back on status in 1993, the T-38 option was gone since we brought in the T-1. I went to Randolph to stand up the T-1 PIT squadron. After PIT I was at HQ AETC and was part of the integration of USAF and USN pilot training. So I was very immersed in all these training changes. The reason the USAF went to A generalized UPT was because of a hail storm at Reese AFB in Lubbock TX that severely damaged all the heavy trainers. I think that was in the late 50s/early 60s. For the next 30 years they had generalized UPT until they brought in the T-1 in the early 90s. For a while they wanted C-130 guys to go train with the Navy in T-44s. Not sure how long that lasted. The attempt to consolidate USAF and USN training programs managed to ruin both programs instead of taking the strengths of each. I would argue the best C-130 pilots came out of the T-38. We also flew the T-1 more aggressively. So I like the idea of the generally assignable pilot, though as was mentioned, going back and forth between fighters and heavies is hard since the skill sets start to become so specialized.
Great discussion. When I applied for my anesthesia residency program, I didn't get my first choice, I got my last choice.
In Naval Aviator terms, that means somebody has to fly that cargo plane full of rubber dog stuff out of Hong Kong.
I am a retired US Army NCO. I chose the Army over the Air Force. I chose military police over aviation (Warrant Officer - helicopter pilot or turboprop plane). It was a HARD choice, picking both branch and career field. Ironically, as an MP (in my last 5 years), I was stationed at Beale AFB, CA. Working with "civilian" law enforcement, I got to fly over 100 times in helicopters. Some of those flights were in ARW Pave Hawks, to include being hoisted down or up. I also got to fly short haul under civilian helicopters assigned to law enforcement missions. I am now an instructor (Academy Sergeant) at a state criminal justice academy. I am 62 years old and can retire next year with a state pension if I choose. If I had gone the military aviator / airline pilot route, I would have to retire in less than 3 years (age 65). No regrets, but I might get a PPL in retirement to stay active (not sit on a couch). My dad was a WW2 B-17 pilot, but never left North Dakota due to an eye injury. Had he flown over Europe (VERY dangerous), I might not have been born. Thank you for your service. Love your channel.
Season 1 of Jack Ryan had a plot point of a guy who was a drone operator at Creech. However, he never really wanted to be doing that. He was apparently top 3 in his class in pilot training and well on his way to getting a fighter seat. At least until one day when he said a sergeant came up to his class and pulled everyone and told them they were going to be controlling drones.
Obviously fictional, but they had enough military advisors where I'd think it was from common knowledge.
Part of it was weird though. Apparently his buddy would give him a dollar for every confirmed hit and one day he just took it to Vegas and turned it into thousands at a roulette table.
I’m not a pilot, but the Navy will send you where you’re needed. I was deployed as a Navy Reservist with ARMY 48th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) at Kandahar Airfield (KAF) during Operation Enduring Freedom because they needed Nurses with Trauma experience.
The past is prologue and some things never change. Lets go all the way back to when the Vietnam RIF was getting under way. I graduated from UPT on 1 April 1975. Appropriate graduation date for our class. We started with something like 52 and graduated 25 including 2 Norwegians and 3 Iranians. Even the Norwegians got hosed a bit. Reidar got helos before moving to the F-5 and F-104. All of the Iranians who started in my section graduated with our class, unheard of, but none did in the other flight. Our class leader was an Army fixed wing captain going to fly for the Georgia ANG flying C-7s. Tom couldn't believe they were forcing him to stay on active duty and making him fly the T-38. He never stopped grinning from Day 1. Out of the 19 Americans 3 got tankers, #2, #3, & #4 in the class. #1 got and F-4E, went to TPS, and flew 2 shuttle missions. He beat out #2 for top grad by 5 points, the difference between a good and an excellent grade on any one landing in UPT. In the fall of '74 our T-38 flight commander started the morning formal briefing with the news that his counterpart, a USN buddy from Vietnam at Kingsville (TA-4), had called him the evening before. The news was that the USN was immediately washing out, and releasing most from active duty commitments, the bottom half of every Navy flight training class. I still haven't confirmed that this actually happened but it sure got our attention. Our IPs who were completing their training command tours in FY '75, all went to rated sup, ground jobs. Only 1 flying assignment was available for the FY. When I returned to be a Tweet IP in March '79 we were working 7 days a week off and on and running up against monthly flight time limits until I went to PIT, the instructor school, in March '82. Manning has been feast or famine in the military for far longer than I've been alive. Just getting flying jobs is a win. Some of us have to learn to thrive where we are planted.
This was another interesting segment. Thank you.
Gonky, Mover and Doug, I hope you guys are okay and that the hurricane has passed 🙏
I’m a Willy grad too. Went to 141s. Became the head of Flying Training for AETC many years later. We went to the specialized UPT track because it was way too expensive to move the universally trained pilot between weapons systems. By the way, we went with a fighter bomber track to eliminate SAC getting the bottom of every UPT class….no one wanted to live in the far north, nor pull alert. Also note, one concern has always been geese people into the correct track. Today track selection occurs well before the end of the T6 phase. When we had a single track, track selection was done at the end of T38s. Which option do you think made better selections?
In the Navy you always went where they needed you!
You think all those guys want helo’s?
Yep, the needs of the service come first, HAS to be that way.
During OIF in 2005 when we were fighting the Mahdi Army militia and IEDs were at their peak a lot of us got pulled from our units and deployed for “non MOS specific deployments” as part of slapped together convoy escort units as trigger pullers. I was an E7 commo chief and sent off as a .50 turret gunner. “The needs of the Army” they said. Its everywhere
Algorithmic engagement comment.
Algorithm engagement comment!
I'm just an airline guy nearing retirement, no prior military. I guess I'm missing something... certainly there are fighter pilots who are leaving for airline jobs or just retiring like there always have been, and there is a shortage of fighter pilots as well? Is the pool of heavy aircraft pilots that much more critical right now, or are cutbacks in play on the fighter side? I wanted to go military in the late 80's, but it wasn't in the cards for me. Personally, if I were not at least able to have a shot at the type of aircraft I'd want to fly, I would not apply for military flight training. I enjoy watching your channel.
The needs of the Air Force come first, that’s always been the way in any military.
Making pilots ground pound with ground units!? Feels like FWA. 🤔
The Air Force had a surplus of pilots years ago, and newly graduated pilots were being assigned as 3rd pilot navigators on KC-135s for their first tour. The were mostly navigators, but were allowed "some" stick (yoke) time.
The RAF does exactly the same thing.
An Army colleague on his Rotary wing course had a bunch of almost qualified Typhoon guys.
Their training was pulled and they were now reassigned to that.
One of the issues with the shoratges is never addressed with any of the services. The number of units of given airframe/communities. BRAC 2005 deactivated so many units across DoD. The Air Guard and the Reserves were great for retention and had been pulling more deployments since Desert Shield right on up to GWT. I have many friends who had more combat time, more deployments in their Guard or Reserve years than with their Active Duty units. A lot of platforms and units went away inspite of use. The US Navy and US Marine Corps deployed Hornets,Prowlers and C-130s contantly and still most of them were gutted. Most VP Squadrons went away, most Reserve Helo Squadrons went away, three Marine VMFAs went away and a number of Air Guard or Reserve Viper,Hog,Cargo and Tanker Units. These Airmen,Saliors and Marines want the job then found themselves deployed constantly. The issue was Post Deployment being deactivated. That pool of pilots,crews, Maintainers and support are forced to find other Unit, retrain if allowed to or leave the DoD. Big issue with retention. I know a number of guys that would have loved to stay in, even with the high tempo deployments if they had a unit that would take them. Drone Operators are critical. Helo crews are critical. Transport crews are critical. But who gets the funding? In the end, we loose these folks and our units suffer retention.
Could perhaps utilize the training resources of other branches and even some allied forces to cross train on similar types of aircraft to the career objectives of the pilots and the needs of the USAF. The other branches and allied forces could potentially do the same with any USAF training programs on a reciprocal basis as slots are available. It is challenging to get exactly what you want and need with constraints on aircraft available but we could perhaps utilize all resources available everywhere to the maximum extent possible and relax a bit on specific programming with more flexibility. This will likely create more type conversion training and retraining requirements in the future but it also will create larger pools of pilots trained to a larger extent on aircraft that they are motivated and excited to fly, which could help with retention.
I heard that Navy shut down all Aviator application boards for the next year. Like they have way too many in currently & don’t need any more students.
With respect to Lt. Col. Phelps' "On Killing Remotely" (2021), UAV crews have a different set of issues associated with their tasks.
Like PTSD?
Probably because of the new Top Gun movie.....all the fighter slots filled. Those movies are great for recruitment.....
New?
Flight of the Intruder (1991) is by far more realistic than both Top Gun films.
@@arrowlock Don't let the ghosts of Siskel and Ebert hear that. 😆