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Subject: 
Re: Would a general/pilot in WW1............
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.adventurers
Date: 
Tue, 24 Oct 2000 18:08:41 GMT
Viewed: 
4131 times
  
In lugnet.adventurers, James Powell writes:
> 
> >   The issue of uniforms at all for WWI pilots is also thorny;
> >   it took a little while for real uniform standards to be created.
> >   As many air auxiliaries were simply extensions of the armies
> >   below at first (even the naval squadrons--a real mess, to be
> >   sure), they often looked much the same, except with less
> >   mud, more black soot, and a significantly longer service life.
> 
> Nope.  The average pilots service life was _less_ than the average grunt.  2nd
> Lt (ground) had lowest life expectancy, I believe around 17 DAYS.  But, pilots
> often died in the first 5 MIN of combat.  The good pilots lasted much
> longer...but, they would separate the wheat from the chaff very fast.
> 
> (its just that pilots were not likely to see as much combat as a ground
> pounder...moral of the story, go navy, because you stood a far better chance
> of surviving!)

   I was actually including the non-combat service life with it,
   so in fact you may be agreeing with me here.  ;)  It also does
   shift from year to year, month to month, as aerial combat is
   refined and made more lethal and exhaustion sets in on the
   ground.

   On the other hand, a pilot was more likely to be killed
   in a *non*-combat situation than a grunt...*crunch*

   best

   LFB



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Would a general/pilot in WW1.........
 
(...) Well, that's what you get when you send someone into the air with a machine that is of dubious quality at best, and with less than 10 hrs of flying time! (boy, lives were cheap then!) James (26 years ago, 24-Oct-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Would a general/pilot in WW1.........
 
(...) Nope. The average pilots service life was _less_ than the average grunt. 2nd Lt (ground) had lowest life expectancy, I believe around 17 DAYS. But, pilots often died in the first 5 MIN of combat. The good pilots lasted much longer...but, they (...) (26 years ago, 24-Oct-00, to lugnet.adventurers)

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