I became a Pilot-in-Command just after the war.

One of the most coveted accomplishments you earned as a pilot was designation as a Pilot-in-Command (PIC). The PIC was responsible for everything that happened with the aircraft. It was a rite of passage and it was an acknowledgement from your chain of command that you had earned their respect and they trusted you to be in charge of an aircraft. Pretty much it said you had made it.

Every time you checked into a new unit, you had to complete Readiness Level (RL) progression training. You started at RL3. RL3 meant you could only fly with an Instructor Pilot (IP). Each unit had 4 or 5 IPs and you flew with them until they were confident of your basic pilots skills. Then they progressed you to RL2. RL2 allowed you to fly with a Pilot-in-Command (PIC) to sharpen your skills and then you progressed to RL1 which meant that you could fly unit missions as a fully qualified aviator. There often was a separate RL progression for NVG qualification. The next step in RL progression was designation as a Pilot-in-Command.

I never made PIC in Korea. It wasn't because I didn't have the skills, it was more; "this is the way we do it here." You see, in Korea you were either on a one-year unaccompanied tour or a two-year accompanied tour. You were sent to Korea either by yourself, or with your family. The Standardization-Instructor-Pilot (SIP) was not inclined to let a Warrant Officer One (WO1) take a PIC check-ride unless they were on a two-year tour. Aviators that had come from other aviation assignments, and had made PIC at the previous station, you usually made PIC quickly. (Note: CW2 promotions occurred after two years as a WO1.) Instead, he would offer WO1s, straight out of flight school, the PIC check-ride just before they departed station. This way you could say you made PIC in Korea, but you would never get to fly PIC on a mission before leaving.

I really chafed at this policy. I got along well with the SIP and he was one of the people I hung around with off duty. But I found this PIC Policy insulting. I was RL1 (Day/Night/NVG) and I was fully qualified for PIC months before I was due to leave. I'd become proficient in both the D-model in which I ws school trained but also on the C-Model which I learned about in country. All this didn't matter as the check-ride was never on their agenda until I got my clearing papers 30 days before departing for Fort Campbell. I told the SIP to kiss my ass when he offered me a PIC check-ride and asked him to sign my clearing papers instead.

Everything was different at my new duty station in June 1990. I was arriving as a CW2 instead of a WO1 (I'd been promoted to CW2 early due to reserve active duty officer time credit.) and I'd been assigned to an actual aviation unit for a year. So I wasn't treated as quite the still wet aviator I had been in Korea. That being said, my training was far from the normal unit integration. My RL progression at Fort Campbell was interrupted by the Gulf War. I made RL2 flying to the port ferrying aircraft and I was signed off RL1 Day/Night/NVG during Desert Shield at King Fahd International Airport. I had both my Platoon Leader and others lobbying for me to be signed off as PIC (Day/Night/NVG). I had my PIC Check-ride in March of 1991 in the desert. It was at that point that unit politics and personnel issues came to bear.

My transition to the PIC role was complicated by some internal unit issues. One of our Pilots-in-Command and his co-pilot were not getting along. The Co-pilot was a WO1 and the PIC was a CW2 with just about the same experience level as I had. During this deployment, we were generally teamed as pilot/PIC teams and this had been no exception. I never got a good explanation of exactly why these two pilots didn't get along but I was told the WO1 didn't feel safe flying with his PIC. The result was I was told to move to aircraft (24155?) and the WO1 moved to 23780. Initially, I had been told that I would be PIC and the CW2 would be my co-pilot. He bristled at this idea and it was deemed that we would alternate as PIC of the aircraft.

So we took turns as Pilot-in-Command for the missions we flew the remainder of the deployment and once we returned to Fort Campbell, Personally, I never had any issue with the CW2 and his flying or decision making. I was glad this was all occurring after the war had ended though as I was a tense situation and outside of missions, we really didn't talk and I think he felt I was an interloper.

I entered mission rotation as a Day/Night/NVG PIC in the states and I heard no further issues between those two pilots afterwards. I did fly as co-pilot on several missions at Ft. Campbell as their training philosophy was to train everyone they could as a PIC, so often we had more PICs than co-pilots and we would be paired together on a mission. Like in Desert Storm, when this occurred, we would take turns.