Strangely enough, I AM quoting you.

In WWII the US Army Air Corps produced 50,000 pilots a year. There were 105 Air Training Command bases IN CALIFORNIA ALONE. During the Vietnam era we had about ten USAF UPT bases EACH turning out a thousand FW pilots annually and the Navy was doing about the same at Pensacola.

Many of these AF UPT bases are simply GONE, lost to Base Realignment And Closure.

Craig, Webb, Williams, Laredo, Reese, are no longer bases, and neither the bases nor their training airspace is ever coming back. Other bases have been scaled back as well. Some, like Sheppard, wth it’s European NATO Joint Jet Training now are used for teaching foreign pilots for NATO rather than just US personnel, decreasing their number of US graduates.

Currently the US military turns out about 2500 FW pilots a year including Guard and Reserve. Active duty service commitment for USAF UPT graduates is ten years after graduation so they are not even eligible to leave until they have been in for 11 years and many will incur additional active duty service commitment with upgrades or bonuses. Right now the USAF has 88% of their authorizations filled and are struggling to keep their squadrons filled.

So yeah, with fewer military aviators than ever before being created, and those that are created indentured to the services for longer than ever before, and with projected retirements at Delta, United, and American alone just about equaling annual US military FW pilot production, I don’t think it’s too surprising that there is a big shift from the past when military pilot production was far higher.

The entire current production of US military pilots couldn’t possibly meet current demand in the majors.