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I feel like folks are glomming onto the wrong part of my post. The "99.9%" was a turn of phrase & had nothing to do with the overall point. I wasn't trying to sound elitist. UPT isn't easy, and it's an accomplishment worth being proud of. To undermine that accomplishment by sending a new grad off on a path he feels ashamed or embarrassed of is a huge disservice.

I don't mind the top brass having all the jointness and schoolness in the world. They are bureaucrats, not operators anymore. An average operational background is probably good enough, but if they don't have a sound foundation of international relations, domestic policy, glad-handing, etc they're going to have a tough time as CSAF. Now operators on the other hand should be able to choose to stay in their chosen profession and become tactical experts without the up-or-out problems of the current day.

The "can we" or "can't we" wash folks out of upt who need to be washed out pendulum swings. Usually directly in correlation with perceived (or actual) pilot shortages.

TL/DR, but here's my point: It could work well, but the AF still needs to tackle its retention issues and guard against the temptation to reduce standards. Lower standards = lower performance. Long-Form Thoughts: As an ISR (RC-135 and MC-12, pilot type) guy, I've flown with a lot of truly magnificent enlisted aviators. Many of them would be quite successful as pilots. The AF can recruit them a lot more easily than officers (lower entry requirements), so this will provide a more easily achieved, lower AF-impact route to manning relief. Having said that, many enlisted members join for different reasons than officers. Many (most?) join without any interest in a long career. The pay differential and inability to truly advance into a leadership role is also a factor. Most of all, enlisted aviators realize their talents far surpass the average enlistee, yet the AF treats them like ignorant peons. When I first came into the RJ world, 85% of our first-term CO's would turn down $50K bonuses, fast-track promotion, language pay and flight pay. The AF answer was to reduce training requirements and performance standards to get more cockpit time out of an enlistment. That leads me to another experience I've had, flying the MC-12 with Army pilots (O and WO). The Army dudes were all great, dedicated people, just like everyone in the AF. Unfortunately, their quality was all over the map and completely inconsistent. Many were fine pilots and a few were great, just like the AF bubbas. What was different was that they had far more terrible pilots than you see out of the AF pipeline. In general, the Army folks had less education, less training time and lower training standards. The difference was stunning and immediately obvious to all involved (Army and AF; E, WO and O). Bottom line: You can definitely find E's who can play in the pilot world, but you'll need to be selective and willing to fail people out. The ones who make it through should be welcomed with open arms, then held to exactly the same standards as the O's. If we do that, this is part of the solution.

Zero sympathy if they made that choice for career over flying. I know a few dudes who fought to get back to fighters after RPAs and were fine. Jesus H....worried about making the 95% major cut so much you fly an RPA vs F-16? And the wingman bit......what do you think happens after an AETC tour?

I think this just has to do with people's perceptions and human nature in general. People bag on what they don't know and for the most part, it's very easy to do. As an ROTC cadet, my commander was an ABM and I used to give him an ungodly amount of shit about how stupid I thought the AWACS and JSTARS were. It was all in good fun, but a part of me was serious. It was the last plane I wanted to fly. Fast forward 2 years and I put AWACS #1 on my dream sheet. I laugh at myself now, but looking back I didn't know what I didn't know, which was why I was more than happy to talk trash. I think it's the same for IPs as well as students, no matter where you are. At drop night I know exactly what 10percenttruth & Napoleon_Tanerite are talking about. When my slide came up, the room dropped a few decibels. Everyone was caught off guard that I was so pumped. I had the best group of dudes for a UPT class and they understood what I'd wanted, but my T38 buddies were definitely confused. One of my old T6 IPs, who'd missed all of it, even came up to me afterward and said he was sorry. He thought I deserved better. Of course, when I told him I'd wanted it, I got the uncanny feeling he didn't believe me. I think it boils down to understanding what other people do. When we were racking and stacking our choices, students and IPs alike made all the standard rounds about how ugly the plane looked or how I'd just be sittin' on my ass burnin' holes in the sky, but honestly, no one even knew anything about it, including me. The only person that had even ever flew an AWACS on the base was my student SQ/CC. I went and talked to him for a few hours about it and I was sold. I walked out, erased my whole paper and put the E3 at the top. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Yeah, it's old, there are the bad times when I think it's a piece of crap, but my favorite part of the day is when I'm walking to the bus. I look back and think, man I just hand-flew that big ol' b*tch from 15k' through all kinds of weather and shit. It's awesome. I get to fly the snot out of the jet, day after day. I love the 707. I think the dome is sexy AF. The mission is interesting. I'm stoked. I came from Columbus only a couple of years ago and I definitely had one of the best UPT experiences I think anyone could have, so there are still great things to say about the program. I have a good college friend who graduated from Sheppard though, a year ahead of me; he absolutely loves flying Eagles, but we've talked about how he thinks it was a big disservice to not expose students to other airframes. I don't want to speak for him, but he said it was fighters or nothing. If you thought about flying something else or wanted to explore other options, you ran the risk of being ostracized or thought of as a lesser pilot. I believe the issue often plays both sides of the table. The best experiences, with what little background I have, have always been with open-minded IPs, talking to as equally open-minded students. The IP sharing his background without judgement and the student willing to ignore his shit-talking bros and search out gray beards from any and all airframes. I'm not an IP, but as a stud, it's easier said than done, which is unfortunate. Hence, the scuttlebutts. I'm just a co and again, I don't know what I don't know. Maybe some day I'll see things differently, but these are my thoughts.

If you haven't heard, Serial's second season is on Bowe Bergdahl... Listened to the first episode, it's very good. Highly recommend you check it out. https://serialpodcast.org