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The Causes Of The Air Force's Pilot Shortage

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The Causes of the Air Force’s Pilot Shortage and How to Fix It
William G. Forster
Waverly High School

According to Woody (2017) when talking about the shortage of pilots in the Air Force the Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said “ We are in a crisis. If we don’t find a way to turn this around, our ability to defend the nation is compromised.” According to Pawlyk (2017) the Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, the Air Force is in need of 2,000 pilots. This is a very large shortage because the Air Force only has about 20,000 pilots total so that is a relatively large shortfall. That means that the Air Force needs 10% more pilots than they currently have. That means there is a huge shortage in pilots and there are multiple things causing this issue. One of the main things causing the shortage of pilots in the Air Force is the hiring of pilots for commercial airlines. Recently airlines have been hiring more pilots than usual(Woody, 2017). Airlines like to hire pilots because they are well trained, they have the hours that they need, most of them are very responsible, and they have a lot of leadership skills. One reason why pilots are leaving the Air Force is because budget cuts caused less flying for pilots(Sisk, 2017). Pilots want to fly. When pilots aren’t flying they are working on other duties in the Air Force. Most pilots enjoy flying and would rather fly than be working in the office. Most pilots want to build flight hours to apply as

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