Here is the version of "Where did the pilots come from?"

With the end of WW-II, an enormous amount of pilots were out of the cockpit and looking for a new peacetime career. True, some did stay in the military, however, many found positions in the business community and there were quite a few who took advantage of the GI Bill educational benefits and returned to college. I suspect the AvCad program and intensive pilot training pipeline was drastically curtailed. Your knowledge of that era would be more accurate than mine. During the postwar period, the Army Air Corps was changed to a separate service called the United States Air Force. The missions and roles of the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps became very parochial.... each of their new air, land, and sea areas of responsibility were heavily guarded turf. Consequently, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was formed to iron out issues where the "lines would be crossed".

The newest service, the United States Air Force (USAF), was organized into commands depending on specific missions. Transportation requirements became the mission of MATS, later changed to Military Airlift Copmmand (MAC). Tactical type missions (air-to-air, air-to-ground, and close air support of ground missions) belonged to Tactical Air Command (TAC). Heavy bombardment had changed from "iron bombs" to nuclear deterrence, thus Strategic Air Command came into being with General Curtis LeMay ( of WWII fame with the B-17s) as their first commander. The multiple nuclear role to be played by each of the services is too complicated to be included in this brief scenario. Let it be said that many inter-service rivalries grew out of the nuclear area which led to later intense "battles for ownership" amongst the services. One has also to remember that many lessons were learned from the "big war" and we entered into a period of research and development on jet aircraft and missle production. We were also into a whole new arena regarding test and development in all areas of weapon development.

The pilot training program, although already greatly reduced, relied on student pilot resources from college R.O.T.C. programs, the Aviation Cadet Pilot Training Program, and just a few from West Point and Annapolis. (It was unheard of that a Navy or Army academy graduate would even consider taking a commission from the Air Force.) Until 1956, when the Air Force Academy was established and the first class of cadets entered the curriculum, demand for pilots was relatively low and could be managed with resources that were available. As with all things, global change was very evident and the U.S. was not about to revert to the "isolationist policies" of the pre-WWII era. (Heaven forbid we would relinquish our world power position, and the post war promises from Russia were soon to be broken.)

Since the USAF Academy was starting to produce pilots around 1960, the R.O.T.C. program was running at full tilt, and the other academies were becoming more liberal regarding graduates becoming "Air Force Officers", the AvCad program was under scrutiny as an unneeded cost. After all, we now could produce pilots with college degrees and put their college training to use in other areas of the services. We still were providing pilot trainees from the Officer Candidate Program (OCS) for our enlisted personnel, but this program, like the AvCad program, was to fall victim to the college degree syndrome produced by the "Washington Think Tank Group".

Thus, the AvCad Class 61 Foxtrot was to be the last gasp for the Aviation Cadet Flying Training Program. Because it was hoped that "foxtrotters" would continue their formal education after training was completed, many colleges and universities instituted the "Bootstrap" program. You could attend college on your own time and get your degree, but not to interfere with your military duties. The military would absorb the cost of obtaining your degree. Therefore, the "last class of cadets" would have to achieve a very high score on their Air Force Officer Qualifying Tests (AFOQTs). These tests, as I'm sure you remember, were used to screen out those without the officer skills being sought and subsequent flying accumen that was needed. Most "foxtrotters" had two or more years of college and had to score very high on their AFOQTs to be accepted. The physical portion was also crucial as you had to have 20-20 vision and be in excellent physical shape or you would be excluded. It was amazing how many potential cadets never made it past the physical, even though they did well on the testing. The "last class of cadets" suffered a very high attrition rate, allowing only 25% of those starting Pre-Flight at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, to graduate fifteen months later as rated pilots and become second lieutenants in the USAF. Those who didn't complete the training were allowed to "wash back" for another try, sent off to navigator/bombadier training, or return to active duty as an enlisted person.

Just a word about commitment: My recruiter told me the AvCad program had a two year service commitment attached to it. Pappy tells me they told him four years. While we were at Spence AB, GA, the Tactical Officer in charge approached me regarding changing the original commitment from two to four years and asked how would the cadets react to this change. As class commandant, I rejected the proposal for the class and the Air Force lost their case.

In the late 50s and early 60s, several factors were changing the face of the aviation industry and many of our classmates were drawn into commercial aviation. From a military standpoint, budgets were being cut and obtaining flying time was vital if you were to succeed with a military career. The requirements to meet the minimum of 100 hours a year, 1,000 hours by your seventh year, and 3,000 by your fifteenth year were not about to be relaxed. Additionally, many of our college graduates with business, aeronautical, and other engineering degrees were being terribly underutilized in staff positions not worthy of their qualifications. Much dissatisfaction was felt on how pilots were being treated. From a commercial aviation standpoint, the jet age had become reality and was rapidly growing as the common carrier mode of transportation. The interstate highway system and the automobile cast the final blow to our magnificent rail transportation system. The airlines were attracting dissatisfied military pilots by the droves and cashing in on all that "free training".

In retrospect, the AF was very vocal on needing college graduates and not needing pilots. All we had to worry about was the cold war, not attrition. Air Force pilots had become subject to the "Christmas Tree Effect" on the tree of personnel management. Prior to 1965, a military pilot's career was obviously in jeopardy. The rest of the story I'm sure you know well. Viet Nam began to envelop our military, and pilots were being recalled to the cockpit from their desk jobs (Of course they were now not the highly trained killers we had spent so much money and time training). National Guard and Reserve forces were being placed on active duty and until 1973, when we exited our combat role in South East Asia, we were always short of pilots. I know; I spent two combat tours in Nam.