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Air Force is losing pilots, and the headwind is getting worse
Stars and Stripes ^ | 25 September 2016 | Sig Christenson

Posted on 09/26/2016 2:54:51 PM PDT by Lorianne

The shortage stands at 723 pilots this year and is expected to worsen, reaching 1,000 in 2017, with no immediate way to plug the gap because the Air Force needs two years to transform a young officer into a fighter pilot. While active-duty pilot training will increase from 200 this year to 285 in 2017, it won’t begin to replace the lost talent and institutional memory.

(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: pilots; usaf
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Why would you want to fly in support of either team Sunni or team Shia getting the upper hand in the MENA? Maybe that's part of the problem?
1 posted on 09/26/2016 2:54:51 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

But they have plenty of LGBT Compliance Commissars and No-Religion-For-You hall monitor officers. So it’s all good.


2 posted on 09/26/2016 3:02:13 PM PDT by bakeneko
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To: Lorianne

Has there ever been a time, even at the height of WWII or Korea, or Vietnam, when we had a hard time finding young men who wanted to be an Air Force pilot? Think about something...our population is larger than ever, and we have fewer planes than ever. It should be easier than ever before to find pilots.

Something is wrong... and it isn’t just the wars, or the commercial market, etc. The USAF and the other branches have stripped everything macho, cool, and ballsy out of the “flight station”. (the term cockpit has even been banned)
Women who have never flown a plane run the Air Force in the entire pacific. Trannys and lesbos and homos and atheists wield immense power.

That’s the biggest reason.


3 posted on 09/26/2016 3:03:24 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up....)
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To: Lorianne
Yes. Perhaps our pilots are tired of bombing Assad's bases in support of ISIS, or climbing into fighter jets with FAILED PARTS IN THEM BECAUSE THERE ARE NO SPARES. Notice all the jets crashing lately?

Today's patriots in our military are forced to commit treason because of their traitor 'boss'. And people wonder why our veterans commit suicide. So many gains then 0dunga P*SSES IT ALL AWAY IN THE NAME OF 'ALLAH'.

4 posted on 09/26/2016 3:03:39 PM PDT by CivilWarBrewing (Females DESTROYED America.)
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To: Lorianne

Muzzie pilots or aircraft won’t be much I wouldn’t think, but ground attack could do some major damage; but there’s more, as civilian aviation will need lots more jet-qualified pilots in the future, and for instance my son “Ace” earns $200,000 a year for just a few hours flying a week. Big difference nowadays!


5 posted on 09/26/2016 3:04:37 PM PDT by Ace's Dad (Happiness would be command of a battery of ballistic missile interceptors or an Aegis cruiser.)
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To: Lorianne

They think they will be short 1000 pilots, so they increase the number they want to train by 85?

The problem is with the generals.


6 posted on 09/26/2016 3:06:09 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Lorianne

I take it none of the illegals streaming in are air-worthy?


7 posted on 09/26/2016 3:08:31 PM PDT by PLMerite (Compromise is Surrender: The Revolution...will not be kind.)
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To: DesertRhino

I’m sure PC is a big part of it as well.
But I continue to wonder what people in today’s military really think about our military objectives. I wish they could talk freely about this.


8 posted on 09/26/2016 3:12:27 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: PLMerite
I take it none of the illegals streaming in are air-worthy?

English is the language of aviation, world wide.

That lets them out.

9 posted on 09/26/2016 3:12:55 PM PDT by grobdriver (Where is Wilson Blair when you need him?)
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To: DesertRhino

Single moms growing emasculated boys into emasculated metrosexuals doesn’t help either. 0dunga was ahead of his time in this dept.


10 posted on 09/26/2016 3:14:23 PM PDT by CivilWarBrewing (Females DESTROYED America.)
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To: Lorianne

They’re going to have to pick apart reserve and NG units.

This is enemy islamist agent ø’s doing.


11 posted on 09/26/2016 3:18:24 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Lorianne

No loyal Americans welcome in the US military, especially in the officer ranks. This is just part of the quietly orchestrated demise of the US military by the commie and chief and his boss handlers.


12 posted on 09/26/2016 3:22:14 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: DesertRhino

There are trannies flying now as Captains of all major airlines. Just google American Airlines.


13 posted on 09/26/2016 3:25:08 PM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: Lorianne

F-35?


14 posted on 09/26/2016 3:25:16 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("They Say That Nobody's Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: Lorianne

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.


15 posted on 09/26/2016 3:29:17 PM PDT by Stingray51
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To: DesertRhino

The Romney boys don’t want to serve. Senator Burr’s sons are not interested. Phil Gramm’s sons have other priorities. The Sununu family has a tradition of leaving it to other families. Etc., etc.


16 posted on 09/26/2016 3:30:46 PM PDT by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: Stingray51

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.


17 posted on 09/26/2016 3:32:25 PM PDT by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: Lorianne
Lucrative airline job or risk getting shot down by Obama's US backed jihadis.

Decisions, decisions...

18 posted on 09/26/2016 3:32:44 PM PDT by TADSLOS (Vote Trump. Defeat the Clinton Crime Syndicate. Reset America.)
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To: Lorianne

A big problem is the Air Force insistence that only officers can fly. So they take trained officer pilots out of F-15s or B-1s or C-17s and put them in a trailer somewhere where they fly Predator drones thousands of miles away. These are billets that are roundly hated by pilots and which could be as easily done by NCOs trained to fly them. But instead the Air Force runs pilots through these posts time and time again. No wonder pilots are bailing.


19 posted on 09/26/2016 3:39:20 PM PDT by Lower Deck
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To: MSF BU
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.

Dogfighting appears to be an activity that requires the ability to think fast, to visualize in three dimensions, and to continually keep track of the implications of current airspeed and altitude. You are correct, it needs somebody who is very sharp.

20 posted on 09/26/2016 3:39:53 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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