Alpine Skier
Some good points there.
However, on the point of WW2 aircrew..
The recruitment/selection process at the time threw up some incredibly brave and talented individuals - the names are legend now and we owe them a great deal. But..theirs was a completely different job, prioritising bravery and basic 'stick and rudder' skills. They frequently acted as renegades and ignored rules just to get the job done - and as I say - we owe them an awful lot for this. Today's commercial pilots are required to operate in a totally different arena where flying the aeroplane is but a small part of the job - OPERATING the aeroplane is what we do with all that this entails. It's certainly NOT encouraged to be too brave - rather, considered and safe.
I've no doubt that any candidate with reasonable co-ordination can be taught to fly an Airbus/Boeing - it's not that difficult - but consistently safe performance in the commercial environment is a skill that is a little rarer.
If we had a big war now I think I would be in touch, pronto, with the flight sim computer nerds with lightning fast reactions and high levels of situational awareness and try them out in Typhoon/F16 simulators - I wouldn't waste my time recruiting airline pilots, they are just (mainly) different animals.