Mike Kanze wrote:
Vidas Vilkas and I went through Preflight School together in 1969. Excellent representative of the fine folks in CG aviation.

However, Vidas was very tight-lipped about his family since many were still living in behind the Iron Curtain (Lithuania?) then.

--
Mike Kanze

Shows ya how small USN aviation really is. Vidas was just so happy to
be at VT-26, used to stand around with his gsuit on, all the time,
trying to scarf up extra hops. Story went that after winging, asked a
bunch of them where they wanted to be 'plowed-back', and he kinda just
stayed with the USN bunch and was included.

"Press '1' if you speak English, press '2' to disconnect until you can."

- Anonymous

"qui si parla Campagnolo" wrote in message oups.com...

Ed Rasimus wrote:
On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:54:10 -0500, wrote:

On 21 Jan 2007 15:27:39 GMT, Bob Moore
wrote:

qui si parla Campagnolo wrote

Mike Kanze wrote:
My entire class was SERGRADed.

When I got my wings along with about 15 others in Beeville(first 2
weeks of June, 1974) we were the first nuggets to get fleet orders for
a long time(maybe a year or more?) 2 F-4 seats( I got one-other Mike
Price), some A-7 seats, couple of A-6..more than a few A-4..Not enough
nuggets to fill all the rquirments but they wouldn't let any Sergrads
take the excess.

What's SERGRADed?

SElective Retained GRADuate. Newly winged guys plowed back as
instructors.

That's what we in the junior service call a FAIP--First Assignment IP.

It was a result of the rather extensive draw-down of pilot
requirements at the end of the SEA conflict. In USAF, the agreement
was that each major air command would take UPT graduates in proportion
to the number of line pilot slots they had. So, Training Command with
28% of the AF pilots at that time had to take a quarter of the
graduates.

There was a lot of emotional argument about quality, but it really
turns out that the job is so rote that a brand-new grad can be pretty
good at it. The only thing missing is the intimidation factor that is
the basic stock-in-trade of the military flight instructor. The three
tool of the IP: fear, sarcasm and ridicule.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

I thought it was noise, pain and repetition, no wait, that's for little
kids. I was ususally impressed with the 'plowbacks' in VT-26/5. Most
were very good, but the 'fleet' guys did have something 'extra', even
if it was just a sea story. One of the best in VT-26 was Vidas
Vilkas..Coastie who fenagled his way out of something in the CG to the
USN TraCom..great guy, as memory serves..it WAS 32 years ago.

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DIVFONT face=ArialVidas Vilkas and I went through Preflight School together
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DIVFONT face=Arial/FONT /DIV
DIVFONT face=ArialHowever, Vidas was very tight-lipped about his family
since many were still living in behind the Iron Curtain (Lithuania?) then.
/FONTBRFONT face=ArialBR-- BRMike Kanze/FONT/DIV
DIV /DIV
DIVFONT face=Arial"Press '1' if you speak English, press '2' to disconnect
until you can." /FONT/DIV
DIV /DIV
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DIV"qui si parla Campagnolo" <A
href="mailto A
oglegroups.com"news:1169472994.673575.221300@s34g 2000cwa.googlegroups.com/A.../DIVBREd
Rasimus wrote:BR> On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:54:10 -0500, A
/A wrote:BR>BR>
>On 21 Jan 2007 15:27:39 GMT, Bob Moore <A
"rmoore16@ta mpabay.rr.com/A>BR>
>wrote:BR> >BR> >>qui si parla Campagnolo wroteBR>
>>BR> >>> Mike Kanze wrote:BR> >>> My entire
class was SERGRADed.BR> >>>BR> >>> When I got my
wings along with about 15 others in Beeville(first 2BR> >>>
weeks of June, 1974) we were the first nuggets to get fleet orders forBR>
>>> a long time(maybe a year or more?) 2 F-4 seats( I got one-other
MikeBR> >>> Price), some A-7 seats, couple of A-6..more than a
few A-4..Not enoughBR> >>> nuggets to fill all the rquirments
but they wouldn't let any SergradsBR> >>> take the
excess.BR> >>BR> >>What's SERGRADed?BR>
>BR> >SElective Retained GRADuate.  Newly winged guys plowed
back asBR> >instructors.BR> >BR> That's what we in the
junior service call a FAIP--First Assignment IP.BR>BR> It was a
result of the rather extensive draw-down of pilotBR> requirements at the
end of the SEA conflict. In USAF, the agreementBR> was that each major
air command would take UPT graduates in proportionBR> to the number of
line pilot slots they had. So, Training Command withBR> 28% of the AF
pilots at that time had to take a quarter of theBR>
graduates.BR>BR> There was  a lot of emotional argument about
quality, but it reallyBR> turns out that the job is so rote that a
brand-new grad can be prettyBR> good at it. The only thing missing is the
intimidation factor that isBR> the basic stock-in-trade of the military
flight instructor. The threeBR> tool of the IP: fear, sarcasm and
ridicule.BR>BR>BR> Ed RasimusBR> Fighter Pilot
(USAF-Ret)BR> "When Thunder Rolled"BR>  A
href="http://www.thunderchief.org"www.thunderchief.org/ABR>  A
href="http://www.thundertales.blogspot.com"www.thundertales.bl ogspot.com/ABRBRI
thought it was noise, pain and repetition, no wait, that's for littleBRkids.
I was ususally impressed with the 'plowbacks' in VT-26/5. MostBRwere very
good, but the 'fleet' guys did have something 'extra', evenBRif it was just
a sea story. One of the best in VT-26 was VidasBRVilkas..Coastie who
fenagled his way out of something in the CG to theBRUSN TraCom..great guy,
as memory serves..it WAS 32 years ago.BR/BLOCKQUOTE/BODY/HTML

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