Salute!
BTW, Okie, I also think a few more hours should be required, but high time active duty folks like I was are hard to find. Hell, I had 3,000 hours in less than ten years ( still a captain and had more fighter time than anybody on the base except the DO), all but few hundred hours in attack/fighter planes. Nevertheless, the Birds I know say the schedule is a bear and getting along on the ground is as imnportant as getting along in the demo drill.
Beaver was in my 356th TFS at the Beach and we were joint owners of an electric trimmer, heh heh. He only lasted a week or two at Korat when we deployed there. My classmate Jerry Bolt died and the Beaver was next in line for a slot. I think they got him at least one combat mission before he had to zoom back to Nellis. So he flew the Double Ugly and then the T-38. I think he was a Hun jock, so had zero time in the F-4 when he joined the Birds. Riggs was one of the first brown bars to check out, and I flew with him in the Sluf and later in the Viper at Hill. He led the bomb comp team and then the Birds.
I was fortunate my whole career to associtate with some really great pilots and also to fly three new planes in a row during their first year of operations.
Oh well, another nickel on the grass.
Gums sends...