Just curious

[Coyote Chris]

I saw on the Telly this morning that 6 days ago, Lt. Cmdr. Lou Conter had passed at 102.
Lou flew 200 missions for the Navy in WWII and served in Korea.
He was the last known survivor of the USS Arizona. His family is making arrangements for his burial with military honors.
He has the right to be interned on the Arizona.
Did your news cover this?

 

[coaster]

I saw on the Telly this morning that 6 days ago, Lt. Cmdr. Lou Conter had passed at 102.
Lou flew 200 missions for the Navy in WWII and served in Korea.
He was the last known survivor of the USS Arizona. His family is making arrangements for his burial with military honors.
He has the right to be interned on the Arizona.
Did your news cover this?

Was on the telly this morning.

 

[suvcw04]

Yes, saw it.

 

[mikesim]

I was curious when I read about his serving on the Arizona and also being a Naval aviator. He enlisted in 1940 and after basic at San Diego was assigned to the Arizona as a Quartermaster. Somewhere shortly after he must have been selected for commission as an officer and sent to flight school. We should be grateful that there were men such as Commander Conder who served our country so gallantly.

Mike

 

[DirtFlier]

During WWII, both the British and Japanese had Sgts as pilots. Perhaps it was a wartime expediency but, in my mind being an officer had little to do with flying skills.

 

[mikesim]

I agree. IIRC the US also had a fair amount of NCO's as pilots during WW2 and before. I don't think there are any NCO's as pilots currently. The Army makes good use of the Warrant Officer billet for their chopper pilots though.

Mike

 

[RedLdr1]

The USAAF / USAF did away with most NCO pilots during WWII in 1942. From Wikipedia HERE.

"The United States Army Air Forces originally favoured officer pilots and the few enlisted pilots were usually civilian-qualified. The adoption of transport and strategic bombing missions meant that a larger number of pilots were needed to perform monotonous and gruelling jobs. Officer pilots were usually assigned to fly fighters and fighter-bombers and commanded units. Enlisted pilots, called flying sergeants with the rank of staff sergeant[4][5] usually were assigned to fly light reconnaissance and artillery-spotter aircraft, cargo aircraft, and medium- and heavy-weight bombers.

The Flight Officer Act of 1942 created the warrant officer rank of flight officer. All enlisted pilots were promoted to that rank and the rank of flying sergeant was discontinued. The flight officer rank was cancelled in 1945 due to there being adequate numbers of commissioned pilots.

The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps had several programmes to train civilian pilots and enlisted personnel to become naval aviators. There were also programmes to train enlisted men to serve as enlisted pilots to fly torpedo and dive bombers, transport and reconnaissance planes, and airships."

Technically there are now some enlisted "pilots" again:

"On 17 December 2015, the United States Air Force announced that it would begin training enlisted airmen to fly remotely piloted aircraft, specifically the RQ-4 Global Hawk.[6] The first two enlisted pilots since 1961 soloed on 3 November 2016 at Pueblo Municipal Airport in a Diamond DA20. The first-ever female enlisted pilot completed RPA training at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph on 3 August 2017.[7]"

With the current shortage of pilots the USAF is offering program to allow enlisted troops to train as an aircraft pilot and move up in rank. See Here.

 

[Phil Tarman]

My dad was a CPTP (Civilian Pilot Training Program) instructer starting in 1938. After Pearl Harbor, he and several of the guys he flew with tried to enlist and become pilots in the AAF, but were told that they were needed more as instructors. So Dad fought the battle of Texas, continuing to serve as a CPTP instructor in Bonham, TX. In '44, he was "federalized" and became a Warrant Officer and instructed at Wichita Falls until after the war ended.

He continued to fly, retiring at age 60 after flying a Twin Bonanza, Baron, and MU-2 for Petrolite Corporation in Longview, TX, Tulsa, and St. Louis. He had over 30,000 hours when he retired in 1979. He only flew twice after his retirement...once in the Citation Petrolite bought 5 months after he retired, and once with me in a Piper PA-28 after I received my Private Pilot License that same year.