Doing the right thing.

Doing the Right Thing

???????????A favorite quote of mine from the movie SWAT: “Sometimes doing the right thing ain’t doing the right thing!” – Sgt Hondo. ?Although I agree this is a possible case, most times, doing the right thing is exactly that, doing the right thing, even when it is very hard to do.?Early in my T-38 instructor career I was faced with one of the most difficult situations I faced as a young, 2nd Lieutenant instructor pilot.?New instructor pilots fresh from graduating the USAF Pilot Instructor Training (PIT) schoolhouse, are assigned to a more experience instructor (buddy).?I would fly a few sorties with a student, then my buddy instructor would fly with that student as well and see if I was doing an adequate job teaching what the student needs to learn.?After that he would give me some feedback and instruction on what I could improve on.?You had to accomplish flights in each phase of training and a couple of special cases flights.?

???????????I was complete with the Buddy IP program, with the exception of flying with and clearing a student to fly in four ship formation.?There was not a lot of four ship flights in the program, only 4 per student. Only the students that were selected for and had follow on assignments to fly fighter aircraft were required to accomplish the four-ship formation phase of training.?Since the students in our class were not going to be in that phase for several months, I was scheduled to fly with a different class.?My student was not and active-duty Air Force student.?He was an Air National Guard student, who unlike the Air Force students, was going to the specific unit that hired him, he was not selected to fly fighters based on his class ranking but based on the aircraft his unit flew.?Theoretically, he still had to meet the same requirements, but nepotism and politics always play a role in that final decision to qualify them as fighter qualified.?

???????????The gouge I got from the other instructors was that he was a good dude, struggled at times, but he always worked hard.?We went out on his first four ship mission and he struggled with the basics but was a good dude.?I de-briefed him thoroughly and we were scheduled the next day for the next mission.?After the second four ship mission I was supposed to clear him to fly solo (without an instructor) and his third and fourth mission would normally be solo missions. After the second mission, he was still struggling, and after another thorough de-brief, I did not feel he was ready to fly solo and did not clear him for the solo mission.?After filling out his gradebook and talking to the assistant flight commander I headed back to my flight room.?A short time later the flight commander for the student came looking for me.?He asked why I didn’t clear him for the solo flight.?I explained that I did not believe he was prepared to fly solo and was struggling a bit and needed some extra instruction.?The flight commander was livid.?He proceeded to “counsel me.” He was a Captain and had previously flown F-16’s and I was a Lieutenant lowly FAIP! (first assignment instructor pilot) How could I possibly know when someone was ready to fly solo four ship formation??After all, this student was a good dude and that I should go and change his grades immediately and mark his gradebook as ready to fly the next days mission solo.??I tried to explain rationally, but at every turn I was belittled and mocked for my assessment. Upon my continued refusal to change my assessment, he announced that he would fly with him the next day and take care of my misjudgment.?He left angered, but I knew that the student was not ready, and in my limited observation of his capabilities, probably had no business flying a single seat high performance aircraft.?The next day, the Captain did exactly that, he flew with him and cleared him for the solo mission to follow.?Since my buddy instructor didn’t get to fly with my student, I was still required to fly with another four-ship student a few weeks later to finish my instructor training.?

???????????If that is where the story ended it would have just been an unpleasant counseling secession, from someone outside my chain of command, but that is not the case.?Several months later, I was coming in from a flight and was informed a Colonel from a different base had been looking for me.?That is never a good sign, but as soon as I finished my debrief, I headed out in search for him.?I was coming down the hall when I noticed the Colonel coming out of the flight room.?At that second, I did not put two and two together, but he was with said flight commander, who pointed me out to him.?I introduced myself and we headed off to talk in one of the offices for privacy, since he had several questions for me. ?The questions started with the gradebook from that student.?He asked me why I had given him the grades I had given him.?He asked why I had not cleared him for the solo flight after his second instructional four ship flight.?I explained with my best recollection how the events unfolded.?I gave him my assessment of his performance for those two flights I had instructed him on, and then added that I thought he wasn’t ready and that although I would not change my assessment, that the flight commander had tried to persuade me otherwise.?He asked me pointedly about some specific event grades and he was looking for details.?I offered my best explanation, but after several months and thirty or forty students between now and then, my ability to recall detailed specifics was sketchy at best.?

???????????At the end I asked him why all the specifics on this student, and why explanations on particular from months ago were so important.?He explained that this student had been killed in an aircraft accident.?He went on, that early in his training he had lost situational awareness and had been killed when his aircraft hit the ground during a training mission.?During the investigation and a review of the student’s gradebooks, two single grade sheets from the missions that I had flown with him months earlier, jumped out at the accident investigation board and that they wanted to talk to me in person.?The Colonel told me that after much review his training, and many interviews with multiple instructors, he believed that the student although a good dude, should never had been in the position that got him killed.?He should have been eliminated from training at some point during training, or at a minimum been re-assigned to a crew aircraft where he would have a chance to further develop his flying skills under the supervision of an aircraft commander, but not in the seat of a single seat fighter.

???????????Though this incident is many years removed from me, it still haunts me.?At the time, as an aspiring instructor pilot wanting to fly fighters myself, I was more concerned with alienating myself with this flight commander fighter pilot. Even though it was tough, I stood by my assessment. Following this assignment as an instructor pilot I went on to fly, instruct and evaluate in the F-16 for 13 years.?Today I wonder, did other instructors feel the same pressure to just push him along and he will be fine??Was my assessment correct??Could I or should I have handled the situation differently? ?I do not know the answer to these questions.?What I do know, is that learned from this incident.?I never again had issue with making a call on a single grade, a flight evaluation, or serving on a review board.?It is easier to tell someone that their a lifelong dream of flying fighter aircraft is the wrong place for them, then to see their wife, mother, family receive a folded flag for their service to this great country.?Do the right thing.?Even when it is difficult, do the right thing.?When no one is watching, do the right thing.?When it hurts, when it hurts you, it hurts them, it hurts others, do the right thing. It is always easier to live with yourself when you do the right thing.?After all, you are the one you must live with. ?