Warbird Information Exchange

I was just sitting wondering. I know the RAF had Sargeant and W/O pilots, I beleive it was fairly common in the Luftwaffe to have NCO pilots, and I think the Japanese (my weak subject!!) had them too, but I have never heard of a non-comissioned USAAF pilot. Were there any? And what about the Navy and Marines? I pass it into your very much more than capable hands.

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The short answer is yes... the last non-commissioned pilot in the USAF retired in the 60's.... Chuck Yeager was a NCO pilot.... sometime mid-war the USAAF created a "Flight Officer" rank... black painted officer's rank insignia. The Navy and Marines also had flying sergeants... my Dad was one.

gunny

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Scott 'Gunny' Perdue
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My father had a number of NCO pilots in his squadron in the IX Troop Carrier. At wars end, he promoted all of them to officers. At a Reunion back around 1991, I met a number of them and they were all appreciative of what he had done for them!

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Bob Hoover was a Sergeant Pilot as well. He and the others had to march onto the transport taking them to North Africa in full field packs with rifles while the officer pilots had their luggage handled for them. On the trip over one of the Sergeant pilots read the regulations and it seems that US Army policy was the non commissioned pilots were not required to fly combat missions. This was politely pointed out to the higer ups and within days all the NCO pilots were promoted to First Lieutenant!

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

Many of the Liason pilots were NCOs. The first NCO Pilot was Vernon Berg, who was Benny Foulis mechanic and wanted to fly, so he was taught and was a pilot as a Corporal! Promoted to Sgt, he retired a Colonel.

SSGt Bob Van Ausdell B-25D pilot 500th BS 345th BG 5th AF.
Later TWA Capt and founder of SCAL wing of the CAF.

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Gene Autry was a Sgt. pilot, later designated a WO. He flew out of Love Field and later over the Hump.
H

MANY of the L-bird pilots were NCOs.


This picture is from the Philippines and there are several Sgt. pilots in the picture.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

L pilots were in a special catagorgy.
I'm not sure if question pertained to straight pilots or not?

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Yes, some were in special categories, but some were not - they were in actual USAAF squadrons. The picture I posted above is from the 25th Liaison Squadron.
Here's an article about them: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... _n9023789/

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

A good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago, Roy Gelpke, was an NCO fighter pilot. He and his twin brother were both NCO fighter pilots and went through training together.
Roy also flew with both the 8th and 9th Air Forces flying P-51's.
Roy's widow was kind enough to give me his uniforms and his tunic and Ike Jacket have both Air Force patches on opposite shoulders. It's ineresting to note that he either lost or there was a shortage of NCO rank insignia, so he just took LT's bars and painted them to look like the NCO rank.
After the war, he was called back and since they had no flying job for an NCO at the time, he became a Master Sargent!, His uniforms reflect the early transition of the Air Force from the Army to it's own branch. His Green EM Ike jacket has the AF Master Sargent's rank in silver and blue, then later, they went o the blue uniform and that Ike Jacket was the first with that style.
Very nice collection of AF uniforms. I have a few other items nobody wanted, but that's for later stories.
Blue skies,
Jerry

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A few odds-n-ends...

From NMUSAF:

Half of the first graduating class of flying sergeants went overseas with the P-38-equipped 82nd Fighter Group. Members of this class shot down 130 enemy aircraft, and nine became aces. In all, former sergeant pilots destroyed 249.5 enemy aircraft and 18 became aces flying fighters. William J. Sloan was the leading ace of the Mediterranean Theater with 12 victories. Four World War II enlisted pilots became general officers (seven pre-WWII enlisted pilots also became generals). Also included among former sergeant pilots are international race car driver Carroll H. Shelby and USAF test pilot and later air show aerobatic performer Robert A. "Bob" Hoover.


And a little more on the sergeant pilots of the 82nd FG:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... 6072/pg_2/


And although I can't find a decent image of it now, I seem to recall that sergeant pilots were flying the P-38's in the famous "stacked" formation shots, taken off the California coast from the belly of a Hudson. Does this ring a bell with anyone else?

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Wasn't at least one of the pilots qualified to fly the huge R6O Constitution a Machinists Mate?

Jack not sure if 'special category' would be a correct descriptor or not. There were a lot of NCO pilots flying transports, as well. Most, if not all, were ultimately promoted to Flight Officers or Lieutenants by wars end.

The Sgt pilots serving in to the 1960s were former wartime NCO/former commissioned pilots who reverted to enlisted ranks (by choice) after the war. They did not continue as NCO pilots.

As an aside, the last aerial combat of the Western Front was between a Fieseler Storch and Piper L-4. The Storch pilot was either wounded by pistol fire from the L-4 and forced down or clipped the ground while trying to evade the pistol fire.

The L-bird guys were also routinely operating from their own aircraft carriers:

I'm not talking about specifically enlisted pilot but rather refering to Ryan posts on the Liason pilots who wern't regular pilots just strickly L pilots with their own specific wings.
BTW the last Navy NAP MCPO Bob Jones retired out of NAS Corpus Christi has a TS-2 Tracker IP around 1976 or so

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