Albie,

I can't speak to reasons behind GA pilots or pilots of other services, but I think I know exactly where the some of the erosion of integrity comes from in prior Air Force pilots in completing these applications.

Most recognize the ability to fly the aircraft competently and safely is of utmost importance. However, the impossible administrative workloads that the average AF pilot faces just to be able to fly are merely obstacles to be overcome. It wasn't that way when you helped me get a job back in 07, but it sure seems to be now.

I have a lot of AD friends and I occasionally take some AD orders. Here's what I see more than a few guys doing:

They pend literally dozens of hours per year clicking the next arrow on countless CBTs such as "Cultural Sensitivity, Human Rights, Religious Freedom, Suicide Awareness, Sexual Harassment, Active Shooter" to maintain ground training currency.

Professional Military Education has exploded into a ridiculous amount of work. Spend a year CTRL+Fing your way through every quiz and writing BS papers as quickly as possible to be able to have some quality of life at home. All so an O-6 can spend .5 seconds checking that the PME box is checked during your promotion board.

OPRs. Most guys writing their own OPR bullets. It's expected that you turn a minor success into an earth shattering accomplishment through creative writing.

Logging beans. They've got a mountain of proficiency requirements and not enough training flights. Don't go non-current or the problem is compounded. "Fly what you want, log what you need."

I could go on and on, but my point is the AF has been training guys to check boxes and pencil whip requirements just to get in the cockpit for a few years now. Leadership says "Make the paperwork look right, we'll fix the problems later." So guys are spending their evenings finding creative ways to overcome bureaucratic obstacles created by meaningless administrivia requirements. And they're able to rationalize a compromise of their integrity, partially because when you're tired, overworked, underpaid, and screwed over, you just don't care as much.

It doesn't surprise me that there are a few guys, after doing the above for years, sit in front of a computer, fill out similar looking forms and fail to recognize "This isn't the AF anymore, this matters. Integrity matters."

I'm not trying to defend guys who lie and cheat on airline applications, but I can understand what may have caused some of those lapses in judgement.