Vito

For some historical perspective concerning the wearing of blues. I'm an old guy who just retired in April after 28 years. When I went to UPT the standard wash-out rate was 50%. When a student washed-out He was told to "show up tomorrow in your blues" We would see students around the flight rooms walking around in their blues doing all kinds of jobs like snacko-re-stocking, etc etc. Therefore, from my perspective, the wearing of blues was a mark of shame that was used at UPT like a "scarlet letter". I'm sure most pilots from my era think the same way too. In 28 years as a pilot I Never wore my blues, ever...My Reserve squadron never enforced the blues monday policy, although the SQ/CC, DO always abided by the Blues Monday rule. Just my two cents.

blonde puppet's kinda hot

Nope, The guy with the vest was a Kuwaiti student, Think He got a Mirage, we started with 4 kuwaiti's only 2 finished. I'm the short guy, with the white T-shirt, second from right front row. The tall guy to my right is General James Kurt Vogel, and another bud in the class is a Brig Gen (sel) in the Kentucky Guard.

Follow-up on my search. Just got home from an airline trip and scoured through my Flight records. The earliest record I have is the listing of my UPT class graduates, there are no records prior to that. On one of the earlier papers there is a note that said all "Student Flight Hours" (ie. UPT) records are missing and cannot be found at CBM. So it looks like Columbus dropped the ball somewhere and lost records. I guess it will remain a mystery..PS only one person actually returned calls or e-mails at CBM, the rest didn't even bother to call back...WTF, Its still an Air Force Base! You'd like to think people still try. Also, for some of you who were questioning why its difficult to figure this out, back then 1986, classes were much larger than now. We had well over 65 studs, and some think it was more. A Lot of guys were married and didn't hang with the single guys etc, so its hard to figure it out from class pictures etc...the best Pic I had showed 23 students posing in front of the T-37 gate guard and only 9 graduated from this group picture taken April 1986 Nice socks!

We didn't do ceiling tiles, I did finish a week early and I had a little artistic ability so I painted the Orion Patch over the entrance doorway of the flight room. Always wondered how long it was on the wall before some other class painted over it.

HuggyU2, The earliest record I have has the names of my UPT graduating class, not the students who started the class. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll go through the files again. TreeA-10 When were you at CBM? and what flight? I was Orion.

Gravedigger, No tintype, but I did find a papyrus list!! :)

I contacted the base registrar, Historian and library and no luck. The registrar said they didn't keep records that long ago!! It was 1986, not 1926! I guess I am old. Thanks for the suggestions, the mystery remains

Yes, It was a bloodbath, I can't say it was normal, but a 50% washout rate was common (at least when I was there) Shortly after the Air Force started to re-evaluate UPT because of the high washout rates, this lead to the dual track training in the 90's. Along with the need to extend the T-38 airframe life. I'll try the registrar and thanks for all your help. Vito

I have a request for anybody at Columbus (CBM) or in AETC (ATC back in my day) Here goes, Is there any way I can find out how many students started in my UPT class. We were class 87-04, we started in April 1986 and graduated March 13, 1987. Its a Mystery to all of my classmates as to how many started UPT. We estimated it around 70 studs but the numbers vary widely. We graduated 27, but a few were washbacks from previous classes. I called te base library, and the historian, but they never returned calls. So my question is, are there records that show how many students started out?, and how can I find them? Thanks to all in advance. Vito

Never too late to learn to fly

TIB may be a total waste, but what the hell does a "Protocol Officer" do? My OTS commander was one and when he tried to explain the importance of his job to the flight, I smirked. He hated me the rest of the time I was there.

Its taking the AF close to 20 years just to build a 767 Tanker based on a jet first flown in 1982!, I'm not worried, You'll all be retired way before this happens.

Was flying a T-38 Form sortie with my room-mate who was an excellent stick, but not in formation. I'm solo, he's with an IP. We start doing a set of close trail, and I'm hanging in nicely a few feet behind him. All of a sudden I notice the world spinning around me at strange perspectives along with the onset of some G-force, which was never part of any close trail I'd ever flown. I realized that my Bud never sent me back to extended trail and I was tucked in behind his jet the whole time during some aggressive, over the top manuevers. About the time I'm starting to realize this is going to be a monumental BUST, He whips into a right turn and calls out "Taco 54, rejoin right turning" I counted 10 Mississippi then gently turned towards his right wing and moved up about 20 feet into position (I should have been a thousand feet away) as I moved into position I noticed the IP wasn't even looking for me, as they usually did because rejoins could get hairy sometimes. I remember him spitting some tobacco juice into his druel cup and as I slinked into position he did a double-take! and then gave me a thumbs up. On the way back all I was thinking about was how bad this was going to be, and whether I would bust, my room-mate or both. Plus I'm pissed because I knew my room-mate screwed up but I wasn't going to drop dime on him so I'd end up busting for his Fu$# up. After we landed I grabbed him to the side and asked him, "Did you ever send me to Extended Trail?" He looked puzzled and said, "I don't know, did I?" "No!!!" I told him I was 5 feet away from his tail the whole time. We agreed the best thing to do was fess-up and take the punishment. During the debrief the IP was getting closer to the portion about our extended trail and I was dreading the moment, Then it arrived and he said, "How did extended trail go for you today?" I was about to explain when he interrupted and said, "You must have had a fast jet today because I never saw you at all!, You must have been in our 6-o'clock cone the whole time!" I couldn't believe it!! I quickly stammered, "Yah, I hung out behind you most of the time because I had too much smash!!!" then the best part, he gave me an excellent because he said, "Well, you must have been in position because when we called for the rejoin you were like, right there! I couldn't see you and the next second your parked on the wing! Good Job!!" Talk about LUCKY!!! The night of our graduation dinner we took him aside and told him what really happened!