Salute!
No problem, Small. It's one of my successes as a counselor and instructor at Air University.
Most here know that a staff job or something akin is a requirement if you wish to keep advancing or just stay in! So I took my turn in the barrel at Squadron Officer School, Air University. I had already been selected for the middle management charm school but an overseas assignment screwed that up. So I volunteered to go back to SOS as an instructor. This was in the height of the USAF equal oppo days and during the infamous effectiveness ratings that required half of all the officers to be rated in the bottom 50%. No kidding, you Brits, it killed the careers of many folks like me that just wanted to fly but had to get promoted to be a "keeper".
To the point: A fellow instructor asked me to counsel a young man who was clearly a natural born leader and team player in his section. He told her that he was gonna bail as soon as he could, even tho his unit had sent him to the junior officer school at AU. I agreed and we talked and talked and talked.
He was an Academy grad and at the top of his pilot training class, ditinguished graduate and all that. They gave him a KC-135 assignment!!!! GASP. At the time, the war was over and no easy way to get out of your "track". A few years later the equal oppo crapola went away or was drastically revised, and I helped several youngsters get into the Viper. Did it again about 4 or 5 years ago for a helo troop ( a Warrant Officer in the Apache) and helped him get into a guard outfit, then get commissioned and then fly the Viper.
Anyway, I could not actively help with his assignment, but I pointed him at one way he might break the mold. Volunteer for an assignment at the USAF systems HQ in Dayton or as an instructor at USAFA. He did both and only flew a bit after that, then became a professional educator. He did well, contributed to USAF, and eventually became the Dean of Faculty at USAFA and other universities after getting out( as a Brigadier).
During the war, many folks converted to fighters after initial assignments in transports or buffs or as basic training instructors. It was easy to volunteer to get shot at, and you could just about name your plane. A close friend went from C-130 to O-1A to A-37 to A-7D, and so on. Another went from an AC-47 Spooky to the A-37 to A-7D to F-117. And the beat goes on. All that went away after 1973. I was blessed and squirmed my way into the Viper when my tour at AU was over due to my high time, combat experience and good recommendations by folks already at Hill.
So that's it.
Nowadays they track the pilots early on. In my time, your class standing for assignments was pretty much determined shortly after finishing T-37's. I was always in the top 3 in my class, and was pretty sure I was gonna get my fighter.
Gums sends...