Originally posted by Sandman
I don't mean to offend... If I'm full of ****, say so Toad and I'll just delete the whole thing.
Of course you are full of ****. You are a Navy guy. Quod erat demonstrandum.
Fighter pilots, like the people pool from which they are drawn, are a diverse group. Some are the Hollywood version, some are much more quiet, some are bookish even. They are just people and their personalities vary. They share common traits, of course; the things that they need to do the job. There are great ones, good ones, average ones and some poor ones.
In short, I wouldn't generalize any particular thing about them. As far as single seat vs two seaters, you have to remember that it's mostly luck of the draw which you get from the assignment section at HQ. You're rated out of UPT as either fighter qualified or not. If you are, you can get any fighter. It just depends on where they need bodies at that moment. Now, no doubt a single seat guy evolves to a more "self-reliant" profile. After all, they TEACH you to rely on your backseater IF you have one.
I wasn't a fighter pilot, btw. In my class of 55 there were 7 fighters and our jobs were randomly assigned by the "big computer". At the time, they were trying things to see that each command (TAC, MAC, SAC, etc.) had an equal chance to get the good and the average and the bad from each class. They abandoned the random computer system in pretty short order.
