Originally Posted by
Pilot7576
The quote I found from the book was,"A good navy pilot was a real aviator; in the Air Force they merely had pilots and not precisely the proper stuff."
I would have to agree about the Marines, although there was a time they didn't carqual. I'm not sure Coasties EVER carqualed.
Pilot7576
Those Coasties might not have *carrier* qual'ed - but they BOAT qual'ed
There have been times when the Marines might not have been augmenting the CVWs, but during my carrier there were always some Marine squadron augmenting the USN. Also - I don't remember if there was a time when during the training programs that all of the Strike/Fighter pipeline SNAs didn't carrier qual. What time frame were you talking about Pilot7576?
As for the Marines calling themselves pilots and not aviators - I'd have to disagree with that too - though we still usually just called ourselves Marines.
Wolfe's statement in the book --- I don't know --- maybe Vietnam was different - but it wasn't true during my time.