Originally Posted by
2loud
This is important to note. Timing is everything. Remember the early '90s when 1/2 of the UPT grads were getting banked and the washout rates increased? We lost over 1/3 of our class and a couple of them washed out of T-38s in the last few weeks prior to graduation. Some classes washed out up to 50%-very rare but happened. Fast forward a decade...it took an act of God to wash anyone out.
I remember those times well since I was at the beginning of those times. The Marines had made earlier changes so didn't have the same problems, but the Navy was sending people to other duties not involving flying for lack of spaces further through the training pipelines (Fuels Officer on the USS Iwo Jima was always the joke - or was it???
)
I had to make the final call on whether he stayed or took a hike. It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life but I had to fail him. But still, it's a tough thing to crush someone's dream.
Yeah - I hear you about this. The RP that was washed out of the RAG (or FRS for the *newer* guys/gals
) was a Marine that I had to put the fork into at the squadron level at least - of course it had to go on further up the chain for the final say, but the Marine leadership seemed to listen to the endorsements more so than the Navy leadership at the time.
On top of that, he puked right into his mask so I had listen to the "slurping" sound for the rest of the sortie.
YIKES! I feel for this guy since I did the same thing on an early T-2C/Intermediate Strike sortie too. Luckily, it was the final 2 laps around the pattern at the end of the flight, so by the time my mask started shorting out it was time to land in any case. I had a good time cleaning out the O2 hose with the PRs watching and laughing though!