Vincent

I was in a Navy tail hook Sq (VF-23) for a year. We had 13 pilots and
killed four in a little over a year (peace time). Three ashore and one
deployed to Westpac on the Yorktown.

In the flying units I was in for 28 years, I went to more funerals in
peace time than in war time. You have to parsec that statement as
there were more years of peace time than war time.

Flying is/was a dangerous game.

Big John


On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:00:15 -0400, vincent p. norris
wrote:

Some killed themselves, but most of them did not.

Sort of backwards. Most killed themselves, but some did not.

I have no numbers, and wonder if anyone has. But I doubt that 51% or
more killed themselves.

The loss rate during training was far higher than the loss rate in combat.

Yeah, I've heard and read that many times. The same was said about WW
II.

But I got to Pensacola only four years after VJ Day; and during the
year I was there, in Basic, with hundreds of cadets going through
training, only three fatalities occurred: two students, one
instructor.

I don't recall how many fatalities occurred during the six months I
was in Advanced. None occurred at NAS Corpus Christi, where I was,
but there might have been a couple at other fields.

We weren't flying Camels, of course, but we were flying the same
aircraft the Navy used during WW II.

But even if more pilots died learning to fly the Camel than died it
combat, that doesn't mean it was more than 51%.

vince norris