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