CG,
When I first joined the V-force the Select Star was one of the categories for an operational crew to reach.
On first joining the squadron a crew would quickly attain a limited ops capability which involved combat checking and aircraft and nuclear weapons acceptance and low level conversion as that was not taght on the OCU (it was new). They then underwent a training regime. This involved the pilots flying to a given instrument rating standard, the nav plotter doing a given number of different navigation exercises, the crew flying two 1500 mile typical profile flights, and two hi-lo-hi. The critical evolution was the number of simulated bombing attacks of various manoeuvres with 50% of the scores falling within set limits. Should all these succeed in the 6-month training period then the crew would be awarded a COMBAT classification. They were allocated about 165 hours to do this.
In the following training period the bombing accuracy requirement was tighter with fewer attacks being required as well. The number of flying hours allocated was also reduced. After 12 months on the squadron the crew would be expected to be COMBAT STAR.
The following two training periods would see greater accuracies required with fewer flying hours allocated as the crew progressed from SELECT to SELECT STAR. A select star crew, after 2 years, would be allocated around 280 hours per year.
The select star crew could also expect to fly more overseas ranger flights. This meant the UK training requirements had to be achieved in even fewer hours.
Around the late '60s the system was changed with a different and more difficult award system and the introduction of the BTR (Basic Training Requirements) system.
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On the right to die first, actually it was the other way around.
On the Waddo wing, during one war plan, I noticed that two aircraft were allocated to the same target and flying identical routing from top of drop. The lower priority ALN was 224 and had a TOT 10 minutes earlier than ALN214, the higher priority sortie. In practise I did not allocate crews by experience but in a clever plan to ensure that every ALN was allocated to a crew that had studied the target. In a full tour, not once did we fail to cover the ALNs in our Friday night prep.