CheckGear Posted October 31, 2017 Posted October 31, 2017 Why did F-14 "nugget" (rookie) NFOs tend to be LTJGs, while Naval Aviator nuggets tended to by LTs? Is the NFO training program that much shorter?
Destroyer37 Posted October 31, 2017 Posted October 31, 2017 Likely due to training timeline. Specs:Fractal Design Define R5 Black, ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E, Intel Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake @ 5.1 GHz, MSI GeForce GTX 1080ti 11GB 352-Bit GDDR5X, Corsair H110i, G.Skill TridentZ 32GB (2x16GB), Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB SSD
punk Posted October 31, 2017 Posted October 31, 2017 Why did F-14 "nugget" (rookie) NFOs tend to be LTJGs, while Naval Aviator nuggets tended to by LTs? Is the NFO training program that much shorter? Yes, it is. Punk [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
CheckGear Posted November 1, 2017 Author Posted November 1, 2017 Thanks. I always found that interesting.
CheckGear Posted November 3, 2017 Author Posted November 3, 2017 A large portion of the early 1980's F14 pilots came from the SERGRAD program. Not everyone, but at times, it was in the sixty to seventy percent range. Later, when the Hornet hit the fleet, the talent pool was thinning as lots of good sticks desired to fly the F18. The thinking behind all of this was that the Tomcat was difficult to land for nuggets, and the odds of getting a rare fighter slot was much better had a pilot served well as a Training Command Instructor. This was a time where the only fighters in town were the F14,F4, with transition of the latter to the former in full swing. Few wanted to go to the Phantom and get caught up in a shrinking community, especially if you were more senior. Good way to end up flying a desk. And yes, it took around a year and a half to earn wings as a pilot, then another six to nine months in the F14 RAG, so you were just pinning on your LT bars a few months into your fleet tour. RIOS weren't that far behind. Thanks for the info! Very insightful. It's also interesting to note that early F-14 squadrons had few LTJGs to begin with. I guess they wanted to staff their newest and best fighter squadrons with their Sunday-punchers.
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