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There were several types of flying personnel in the USAAF during WWII. These personnel were trained in different ways for different purposes. I have learned a bit about them, but need to know more. So if anybody has anything to add, please do.
At the beginning of WWII, pilots were initially trained after they received their officer training and were commissioned. I know that there were sergeant pilots prior to WWII, but know little about their origin or training. Recognizing the need for more pilots, several programs were started which did not carry the requirement for an officer's commission before learning to fly- the Civilian Pilot Training Program or CPTP and the air cadet program were two of them. The CPTP would get a student to the private pilot level of training without requiring military service- it was basically a subsidized flight school which offered low-cost aviation training. The air cadet program was an officer training program, ground school, primary and advanced school combined and set up in stages- leadership training combined with aviation training. When an air cadet graduated, he was awarded his wings and commission.
Things changed along the way during the war. At several points during the war, the AAF either was desperately short of pilots or suffocatingly overstaffed with pilot candidates. The points of desperate shortage led to programs like the sergeant pilot program, where the officer classes were eliminated and a sergeant kept his rank after becoming a pilot, and the Flight Officer program, where the number of officer classes was limited and a Flight Officer (modern equivalent Warrant Officer) rank was received upon graduation. At times of overstaffing, classes were eliminated in multiple ways, normal attrition and enhanced attrition the usual ones. However, since the washed-out students had SOME aviation training, they were recruited for other pilot programs- glider and liaison pilots were many of the personnel from this source who were failed at some point in the training program, but then went to another school for re-training. Another interesting way to earn your wings- some enlisted men were recruited as glider co-pilots during Normandy, given some crude training, and received their wings after the assault.
So you have several classes of pilots out there. You have officers who attended flight school after their commission, officers who were trained during their participation in the air cadet program, sergeants trained as pilots, flight officers trained out of pilot programs, air cadets failed out of flight school who went on to be enlisted liaison pilots and flight officer glider pilots, AND personnel who were sergeant pilots and flight officers subsequently commissioned as officers. Whew, that's confusing just writing it.
How do you tell the difference? Well, its hard as evidently some of the ranks changed their ranks during service. But here's how to tell the difference by uniform:
Sergeant pilots wore glider wings or liaison wings and sergeant stripes on their sleeves.
Flight Officers wore regular pilot wings, glider wings, and possibly liaison wings, but I have found no examples of liaison-wing-wearing flight officers in my travels. Flight officer insignia was worn on the shoulder epaulets- it looks like a rounded lieutenant bar with a blue stripe across the center of the bar.
Commissioned officers wore pilot, glider, or liaison wings. They wore the standard officer rank on their epaulets.
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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!
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