phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
The rumors/perceptions you hear about in flight school (and that continue in the fleet outside of a skid squadron) are based on our observations. I'm not saying it's true that skid pilots eat their young, the observation that I made is that skid pilots in general have a much higher expectation of knowledge/studying/understanding of their platform than other communities. It's understandable too, because the mission is vastly different from that of assault support. So, because the skid pilots demand so much of their younger pilots, the assault support guys generally view it as "eating their young."
One of the finest Americans I ever had the pleasure of serving with was a skid guy, and I've got nothing but respect for him. skidkid might/probably knows him - Ninja (a Cobra guy, and either a MAWTS instructor or former MAWTS instructor). When he was chopped to our squadron, he demanded that the young Phrog/Shitter guys show the same level of knowledge of our systems as well. It was more than once that I would get stopped by him in the P-way and asked some innane detail about the APR-39 or ALE-39. When he did a cross TMS flight with my buddy, he went to one of the Phrog WTIs and got a list of limits/questions that would be good to ask in flight. When someone whipped out their coin at the club and started tapping it on the bar, everyone else started doing the same thing. Ninja (who didn't have his coin) whipped out his credit card and tapped it on the bar... Great guy all around.
So no, I don't think skid guys eat their young, but I understand why the perception is there.