Reply #56: Apples and oranges... [View All]

[bdab1973]

This wasn't primary flight training...the students at VMFA(T)-101 are winged, qualified naval aviators. They are only there to get qualified in the F/A-18. Some are young Lieutenants, like the guy involved here, others are more experienced aviators transitioning from other airframes.

Your claim that primary training only occurs in small cities is wrong also. Sheppard AFB trains students in Wichita Falls, TX. Pensacola NAS trains primary students in Pensacola, FL. Corpus Christi NAS trains primary students in Corpus Christi, TX. Williams AFB was open for years training primary students right outside Phoenix, AZ, but was closed about 15 years ago.

I think the "glamorous, sexy nightclubs" comment was in reference to the infamous "Top Gun" movie, where pilots are always seen in clubs at night chasing ladies. Please, that is fiction. Many pilots are married with families...I was when I went through primary flight training (at Laughlin AFB, which IS in the middle of nowhere, and my wife HATED it there). The others that are single are like any other single people...they don't live in a night club.

This thread goes to show that non-military people love to stereotype, and they base their ideas on military aviation from watching too much Hollywood.