We all know that the glamour job in military aviation is to be a fighter pilot, and that these are all commissioned officers, at least ensigns or second lieutenants depending on the branch. But can noncoms ever aspire to piloting helicopters, transports, or other support aircraft?
Also, was there a time in the early days, say during WWI, when combat aviators were not necessarily commissioned officers?
The army uses warrant officers.
There are enlisted SEAL team members who are flight qualified. During WWII there were a number of enlisted men who flew all types of aircraft, including fighter planes.
All pilots in the Air Force are officers. You can be a former enlisted man and be a pilot, I know(knew) one. AFAIK, Navy, Marine and Navy pilots are all officers too. Helicopter pilots are warrant officers and probably some regular officers fly whirly birds as well.
dead0man
Silver Eagles (Naval - warning! Popups)
Those are U.S. and pre-war up to and including WWII. I believe Warrant Officers flew for the Army in Vietnam, but I’m not taking the time to check that right now - I’m sure I’ll be corrected if that’s wrong.
The Brits had Sargeant Pilots in WWII.
I believe that Tech Sgts can be qualified pilots. I’ve seen a few of their names stenciled on the sides of jets.
When I was in Kosovo, we of course met with several flavors of military pilots. I was floored when I found out that the Brits use NCO’s as pilots. In this case, a corporal.
This isn’t as cool as it sounds, they probably do it so they don’t have to pay the poor blokes a decent wage.
Note that in the US Army, the bulk of the flying (thankfully!) is done by Warrant Officers, not Commissioned Officers.
But to become a Warrant is not terribly difficult from the standpoint compared to say, a Navy pilot. No college is required (it helps, but is not strictly necessary) and even the 20/20 vision requirement has been relaxed.
Sorry for the double, but note I am referring to Helicopter pilots, not fixed wing. The Army has a limited number of fixed wing, all flown by Ossifers.
Now, the old Huey, enlisted guys can sit up front and wiggle the sticks on a test flight, but they aren’t going to be flight lead on the next mission board, no. More modern Acft like the Black Hawk are designated “two pilot” acft, so no fun for the enlisted doggies on that one.
The Army also had an enlisted “Aerial Observer” position, since phased out, where they could get a lot of stick time, many applied for flight school once it became clear they would actually have to work for a living sooner or later.
I believe that these are the names of the crew chiefs.
Here’s a story about a guy who was a crew chief and later became a pilot. It mentions that his name was painted on a jet while he was an asst. crew chief.
Neurodoc the NCO’s name you see on the side of a plane is the Crew Chief for the air craft. He manages all the maintenance done on “his” plane along with the munitions. The only way an enlisted airman can get on a “fighting” fixed wing Air Force plane is the gunner position on the AC-130 Hercules. When I was an enlisted man this was said to be the hardest position to get(probably not the “hardest” to get, but deffanatly not easy). All the pilots on fighters, bombers, cargo and electronics are officers. There are plenty of enlisted positions on the assorted AWACS’s,Looking Glass’s, E-4’s,etc electronic and command center planes. You get flight pay and the cool and confortable(compared to “blues” or BDU’s) looking jump suits. I’m guessing here, but I’d imagine some of the enlisted men that load and unload cargo planes get flight pay as well.
dead0man
In the armed forces (my personal experience is RAF) the zobbits (RAF officers) tend to get the good jobs. It’s much more fun flying a plane than filling it up with gas. However, when the shooting starts and there is a run on pilots, anybody and everybody gets to be a pilot. WWII is the best example - the demand for pilots was so high that they were selected only on merit rather than whether they were good officer material as well. The British army has a much more pragmatic approach than the RAF - they want people to fly helicopters, not people who fly helicopters and who are good officer material. The pool of potential pilots is much greater.
The RAF is run by pilots (and I assume it’s the same in any other pure air force, e.g. USAF rather than USN/USMC). Unfortunately, the supply of pilots who are good officer material and good commanders/tacticians/strategists is very limited. If the RAF wasn’t so determined to rule out anybody who wasn’t a pilot for any top line commands, the quality of upper command material would be much higher.
In the Navy, only officers can be pilots/nfo’s. If an enlisted guy wants to become one, he/she has to apply for, be accepted to, and complete one of the officer commissioning programs (OCS or ROTC). So the bottom line is that while you may see an officer who was once enlisted in the cockpit, you’ll never see an enlisted guy in there.
Warrant Officers are a different critter from NCO’s. I don’t know of any US military branch that has enlisted/NCO pilots flying their air assets. Definitely not the USAF or USN. All USMC fixed-wing pilots are officers, but I think Warrant Officers are allowed to pilot Marine helicopters. Army Warrant Officers can be pilots (and often are) as well.
Dead0man, at least 1/2 of the helicopter pilots in the Army are commissioned officers, the rest are Warrant Officers.
At an airshow about 10 years ago, I asked a Warrant Officer pilot (of an Army Reserve AH-1 Cobra) about the difference between a Warrant Officer and a commissioned officer. His reply was “Same perks, less responsibility. If stuff goes wrong, they blame the senior NCO or the officer in charge, not me!” Warrant Officers exist in the grey area between enlisted/NCO ranks and the commissioned officers. They are addressed as “Mister _________” rather than by their rank, are saluted by enlisted personnel and render salutes to officers. The warrant officer rank no longer exists in the USAF - the last AF warrant officer (left over from World War II, no less) retired in the late '80s.
Early in WWII, the Army Air Corps (which would become the USAF in 1947) introduced a “Flying Sergeant” program which put NCO’s in cockpits. Chuck Yeager became a pilot under this program. After a short period of time, most of these NCOs were required to earn commissions in order to keep their wings and the program was scrapped. Yeager became an officer and went on to have one hell of a career.
Being a Warrant Officer Rotary Wing Pilot ain’t what it used to be.
The Army has lots of warrant positions, with helicopter pilot just being one of them. “Walking Warrants” is how they are termed, there was a tech supply puke in our unit who wore a flight suit every day, and I assumed he was a pilot, (He’s a warrant in an aviation company wearing a flight suit) till I looked closely at his wings. What a maroon.
Commissioned guys have numerous other duties and have to really hustle to make minimum flight hours, they have tons of administrative duties that get in the way of flying. Warrants traditionally “get over” but with the military downsizing by half yet deployments and mission load trebled, there is no choice but for commanders to utilize the warrants to “help out.”
Sorry for the hijack, but…
I’ve always thought that picking a kid out of high school and saying “YOU’RE going to be an officer in four years” is a screwy way to run an army (or an air force). I’ve always found Robert Heinlein’s idea appealing: all officers are former NCOs who went to OCS (Starship Troopers).
So, are there any military personnel who would care to comment on this idea? Who would you rather follow into combat?
I knew an Army E-4 who was waivered a promotion to E-5 specifically to attend Warrant Officer flight school. I don’t know what the time frame was, but he went from E-4 to Warrant Officer in considerably less than the usual amount of time.
It’s not exactly as if the Army is being elitist about it. For cripes sake, you only need an AA degree to go to OCS in the first place.
Naturally I agree with Nametag that in a perfect world officers would have some NCO experience.
I really dont think it matters that much one way or the other. A good officer is a good officer. Being formerly an enlisted man might make them more sympathetic to the plights of the low ranking around him. That may or may not be a good thing. Most of the cadets at the Acedemy’s dont have prior service and they are (in theory) the best officers. Its much much MUCH easier to be enlisted than it is to be an officer. As long as you aint broken or (extremely) stupid you can join the millitary. Its harder to get the medal on your shoulders. As it should be.
And I joined the Air Force so I wouldnt have to follow ANYBODY into combat 
dead0man
I know a guy who was in the Navy and claimed to have flown a–I think this is correct–a P-3 Orion. Something like that. I think it’s used for anti-submarine stuff. Anyway, some plane. This guy was definitely an enlisted man. I have no idea if he was telling the truth or not but his claim was made in the presence of a dozen or so very experienced military vets, several of them Navy, and nobody challenged his claim.
Well, there’s a difference between flown and flown in an aircraft. Something like the P-3C (you’re right about the aircraft designation) has a large number of enlisted aircrew positions. There’s even a Flight Engineer which literally sits between the two pilots. These are shit-hot guys who are motivated and smart, and usually more senior enlisted than junior enlisted. So, if I hear a senior enlisted guy saying he flies a P-3, I probably won’t embarrass him by nitpicking.
As far as your question, Nametag, it all depends. I’ve seen outstanding O’s who were never enlisted, and I’ve seen horrible O’s who were once enlisted. And I really can’t say that the good O’s I’ve seen who were once enlisted were any better than the good O’s I’ve seen who were never enlisted. Personally, I’ve found that it makes them more salty and a good place to go for advice on leadership issues since they’ve been around the block a bit. But I don’t think they’re inherently better leader.
[sub]Of course, I’m not prior enlisted, so I may be a bit biased[/sub]
Not to reverse nitpick (can you say it like that?) flyboy88, but there are enlisted pilots in the Navy. There are senior enlisted SEAL’s qualified to fly most fixed wing and rotary stuff. (One of my shooting buddies flys for FedEx, ex-SEAL enlisted, and no, he’s not on the wall of shame)
ps. I’m sure you’ve flown over us at the range at Oceana.