Aviation Cadet Training Program (USN)
From Wikipedia
How WWII Navy Aviators became Navy Aviators
What the V-5 V-7 V-12 means.
During World War II, the USN pilot training program started to ramp up. It had the same stages as the army aviation program (pre-flight, primary, basic, and advanced), except basic flight added a carrier landing stage for fighter and torpedo- or dive-bomber pilots.
In 1940 it was modified to be more like the navy reserve's V-7 program. Candidates had to attend two 4-month smemesters (or 10-week "quarters") of college before attending pre-flight. Pre-flight was divided into flight preparatory school, pre-Midshipman School, and Midshipman School. Flight Preparatory School was a four-week "boot camp" that taught discipline and drill, etiquette and protocol (as an officer was expected to be a gentleman), and ethics (as an officer was expected to be honorable); graduates became Seamen Second Class. Pre-Midshipman School was four months of accelerated academic coursework in science, math and physics for those candidates between the ages of 17 and 20 who did not have the educational requirements to attend Midshipman School; graduates became midshipmen. Midshipman School (nicknamed "Pre-Ensign") was three months of seamanship (swimming and boat-handling), navigation, ordnance, telegraphy, engineering, leadership, and naval military history; graduates became commissioned as Ensigns in the US Naval Reserve. Those that washed out were placed in the general V-6 pool as Seamen Second Class in the Naval Reserve.
V-5 Pre-Flight Schools were established in five locations: at the University of Iowa in Iowa City (opened on April 15, 1942),[4] at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (established on February 1, 1942, opened that May),[5][6] at the University of Georgia campus in Athens (contract NOd3035 signed on March 19, 1942, and opened on June 18, 1942),[7] and two in California: at St. Mary's College in Moraga, and at the Hotel Del Monte at Monterey Bay[8] (a lease that would lead to a purchase of the resort and ultimately in 1951, becoming the Naval Postgraduate School). Astronaut John Glenn was in the first V-5 class at Iowa, where the aspiring carrier fighter pilots were nicknamed the Seahawks. Personnel at Chapel Hill included future presidents George Bush and Gerald Ford, along with MLB star Ted Williams, where they were known as the Cloudbusters. Cadets in California included Ed McMahon and Dennis Weaver.[9] At St. Mary's, they were known as the Air Devils. Their nickname at Georgia was the Skycrackers. In early 1943, flight preparatory schools were established at 17 colleges and universities.[10][11] In July, 1943 the V-5 and V-7 programs were merged into the new V-12 program. V-5 students were reclassified as V-12A (with the A standing for Aviation). Candidates had to attend four 4-month semesters (or 10-week "quarters") of college before attending Pre-Flight or could opt to transfer to the NROTC. The V-12 program differed in that it was focused on college education and it eliminated the Naval Flight Preparatory School and War Training Services stages.[12][13]
Primary Flight School was at NAS Pensacola and it taught basic flying and landing. It used the NAF N3N or Stearman N2S Primary trainers, dubbed "Yellow Perils" from their bright yellow paintscheme (and the inexperience of the student pilots). Basic Flight School was broken into two parts: part one taught instrument flying and night flying and part two taught formation flying and gunnery; an additional part three stage for single-engined aircraft pilots taught carrier landing. They used the North American SNJ Basic trainer. Advanced Flight Training qualified the pilot on either a single-engined fighter, dive-bomber or torpedo bomber or a multiple-engined transport, patrol plane or bomber; graduates were classed as Naval Aviators and received gold Naval Aviator wings. Each graduate had around 600 total flight hours, with approximately 200 flight hours on front-line Navy aircraft. Pilots who washed out were assigned as regular ensigns.
Enlisted Naval Aviation cadets were paid $50 / month for the first month of training (as an Apprentice Seaman in "Boot Camp") and $75 / month for the second through eighth months (as a Seamen Second Class or midshipman attending training). Commissioned Naval Aviation students (NavCad Ensigns or commissioned officers attending Flight School) were paid $245 / month (the same pay as an ensign attending training).
In 1942 alone the program graduated 10,869 aviators, almost twice as many as had completed the program in the previous 8 years. In 1943 there were 20,842 graduates; in 1944, 21,067; and in 1945 there were 8,880. Thus in the period 1942 to 1945, the U.S. Navy produced 61,658 pilots - more than 2.5 times the number of pilots as the Imperial Japanese Navy,
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