Why the Navy Trained Pilots in These Junky Jets

Описание: After boot camp, Tom was assigned to Kingsville, Texas, home to the Navy's advanced jet training command.

This wasn't basic flight school.

The pilots arriving here had already learned how to fly.

Now they were learning combat tactics and preparing for one of the most demanding skills in military aviation:

Landing on an aircraft carrier.

The training aircraft?

Old F9F Panther and Cougar-era jets, many dating back to the Korean War.

Tom remembers them as "buckets of bolts"—old, worn-out aircraft that seemed almost expendable.

But they served a critical purpose.

Before Navy pilots could join the fleet and deploy aboard aircraft carriers, they had to prove they could safely land on one.

And Kingsville was where that happened.

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