Anyone have any idea what percentage of AFA entrants have aspirations of being pilots? Fighter pilots?
100%. On a serious note, what cadet entering the academy doesn’t at least consider the thought of flying a high end aircraft?
As of 2009, most were being trained to fly drones.
I’ve heard that many non-rated AF officers gripe that they should have joined the Army to be pilots.
Former USAF, but not USAFA.
In my era (early 80s), about 1/2 of AFA grads went to pilot training. About 10% went to navigator school (which includes weapons officers, ECM officers, etc.), and about 10% went to missile (ICBM) operator.
Most of the remaining 30% were intending to be scientists or engineers all along and never intended to go the pilot route. A decent fraction of the navs & missileers were folks who started on the pilot track and either developed physical issues or discovered late that they just lacked much aptitude for flying.
Of a typical pilot training class in that era, 35% wash out, 20% went to fighters/attack, 15% to pilot training instructor, and 30% went to bombers, tankers, transports. Of the pilot training instructors, about half subsequently went to fighter/attack a few years later and about half went to transport, with a smattering of guys going on to bombers or tankers, or making a career out of being an instructor.
In those days drones weren’t an issue. I don’t have any more up to date information.
But if the OP’s underlying question is whether not wanting to be a pilot is effectively disqualifying for USAFA, the answer certainly was then, and almost certainly still is today: “Emphatically not. USAF needs non-flying techies with the AFA background.”
I did work with lots of Academy grads. Some were pretty insufferable about their inherent superiority over other sorts of officers, such as myself. But most were good solid officers & a pleasure to work with.
The best line I ever heard from one of them was this: “The Academy is a half-million dollar education. Stuffed up your ass one nickel at a time.” Which really seemed to me to perfectly explain the essence of what it had done to their psyches.
Interesting. Here’s another question. W/regard to the Navy officer corps there are USNA graduates and those who did not attend the Academy. Some would say the former might have a tendency to think of themselves differently. Is this the case in the AF with those who attended the AFA and those who did not?
Academy graduates in all the services are generally seen as the elite members of the officer corps. Almost all the senior leadership and flag officer positions in the US military are filled by academy graduates.
Recent thread on a similar topic: Hierarchy on military officers' alma mater - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
Can a non-academy graduate attend an Academy later in their career? Perhaps for a master’s degree or something? Would that put them “in the club” so to speak, or is it a now or never kind of thing where a non-academy graduate is effectively branded for life?
I know with most schools (non-military academy), it is possible to attend later in life and become a “full” alumnus at least in name. So there’s nothing blocking a retiree from getting that Harvard BA that they always wanted except for motivation, money, and time. It’s not as if they say, “Sorry, you’re already over 35, go pound sand you illiterate has-been and never-will-be”.
None of the four service academies offer grad school; they have numerous grad schools that are seperate: the Army War College, Navy War College, Naval Post-Graduate School, Air War College, Marine Corps War College, National Defense University, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Going to these schools doesn’t make you a ring-knocker, but it does help you tremendously in moving up the ranks as they are prestigious, and you have made connections with your peers in the other services, which is an asset for senior and general/flag officers.
The military runs several graduate schools (Army War College, Naval Postgraduate School, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, etc) that offer masters and doctoral degrees in various subjects.
Although higher ranks in the military have ample representation from the service academies, not being a ring-knocker is not a huge limitation on one’s career. There are numerous generals and even four star generals who are not/were not academy grads.
One could make a rough comparison to saying that Supreme Court justices overwhelmingly come from Ivy League law schools, but it isn’t strictly necessary to go back to an Ivy League to get an LLM or something as a necessary box that must be checked before promotion could occur.
Ha - simulposted about ring-knockers!
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ital added
Huh. Never heard of that one.
- off to Google *
True , but 2 recent chairmen of the joint chiefs went to school elsewhere.
Colin Powell - CCNY
Hugh Shelton - NC State
2 More non grads of academy who were joint chief chairman (missed edit)
Richard Myers - Kansas State
John Shalikashvili - Bradley
That posting is appointed by the President. So favorable bias towards military academies isn’t going to help as much as having the right connections at the right time.