For the new guys it began when they were drafted or joined the army. A few joined for the flight program. It did not matter. you were given a battery of tests. If you made over 115 on your GT score (part of the battery of tests you were given on entry, you were asked if you wanted to go aviation and be a pilot. They informed you that
1. you'd have to go "RA" and sign up for 3 years and
2. you'd haveto serve 3 more years after graduating from flight school. If you agreed to all this, it proved you were crazy and so were fully qualified to become a helicopter pilot. The very high GT score proved you were smart enough to read the manyuals and the volunteering proved you were dumb enough to follow them. After all the testing you were given a "dollar ride" in a chopper to see if you would get sick or try to crash it. If you got through that you met a board of officers and warrant officers and they asked a lot of dumb questions to see if you'd be a complete embarrassment to the officer ranks if accepted. if you di no more than burp and fart during the interview you were given a chance to become a warrant officer candidate. Then you were ordered to Ft. Wolters Texas and put through 5 weeeks of preflight training to weed out the weak sisters and then 8 months of flight training to weed out the really dangerous sticks and teach you how to fly. If you made it throughall that you were considered qualified for suicide and given wings and sent to Nam.
On the other hand there were guys like me and a lot of others who were in the Infantry and other branches and had several years of service, who saw Vietnam coming and decided it was better to fly and sleep in hootch on a cot than in the mud humping a mortar baseplate. besides we could retreat at 120 KTS.
BT