Pilot Shortage Essay

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When addressing the fighter pilot shortage, there are two different yet equally important considerations. To think that this is an issue that only plagues ACC and will not extend further is naïve at best. The two problems that must be addressed here are both the retention of current assets as well as the recruiting of future ones. As an AFSOC pilot with only four years of operational status, yet just returned from a sixth deployment, a seventh right around the corner, and an eighth before the end of 2017; I bring a glimpse of the retention issue to the discussion. One of the main issues with the current Air Force environment (on the operations side) is that deployment cycles continue to cause early onset burnout. Things that need to be discussed …show more content…

Force shaping cut nearly 20,000 Air Force members and of those only a small fraction were FGOs and higher. A top-heavy Air Force will lead to lower promotion rates in the future. There are members of the pilot community who do not demonstrate leadership potential, and as such their glass ceiling is relatively low and are forced into the civilian world early with still years of Air Force flying potential lost. There are more yet who would choose rather to continue flying (even if that means for the airlines) as opposed to moving into leadership roles and filling staff positions. Line flyers who promote up the ranks find themselves flying less and less, so offering a diverging career path that would allow members the choice to pursue continued flight status as opposed to senior command levels must be considered. A warrant officer program is something that would work well here. The option to sacrifice one’s ability to promote to Maj, Lt Col, Col or higher while moving into big AF leadership roles (either out of a lack of desire to pursue leadership or even a lack of leadership potential) while continuing to fly for the Air Force as a warrant officer (with certain pay changes that come along with that line of progression) has the potential to retain those line flyers that would otherwise

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