Naval Aviator

Om pilotuddannelsen i US Navy. Bogen beretter om hvilke kvalifikationer som kræves, den grundlæggende og videregående uddannelse samt den operative uddannelse og indsættelsen i operativ tjeneste.

The US naval aviator of World War II played a pivotal part in the winning of the war. From the warm waters of the Pacific to the icy conditions of the Bering Sea (including the battle of Midway), the Naval aviator was on hand to fight the enemy in any and all conditions. Between 1940 and 1942 the training of the naval aviator lasted eleven months, divided into five separate and distinct phases. From phase one, known as the Elimination or "E" base for short, through to final assignment to a carrier based squadron, the training was demanding and unrelenting.This title examines the life and experiences of the US Naval Aviator in all three types of carrier squadron fighters (VF), dive-bombers (VB) and the torpedo squadrons (VT). From recruitment to battle, the detail of what it was like to fly and fight for the US Navy is brought vividly to life.

The Naval Aviator's Speech Discrimination Test (NASDT), formulated in 1964, is used by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery to evaluate aviators who fail to meet the hearing standards for aviation. The nature of the test, which involves a listening task for high-level speech signals with a simulated aircraft noise background, requires a tape recorder and earphone configuration. Two similar systems of test presentation have been developed and are in current use at 18 Navy and Marine Corps installations. The devices produce the properly controlled test signals required for the NASDT and are easily operated by trained corpsmen. Additional information is presented to enable the user of either system to administer the test properly.

When thousands of naval aviators and flight officers gathered in Las Vegas in September 1991 to celebrate their victory in the First Gulf War, none could have imagined that their behavior during Tailhook ’91 would have such devastating consequences for the Navy. Just weeks after the annual reunion’s conclusion, rumors of a raucous late night gauntlet made up of junior officer jet jockeys began to surface. It wasn’t until a female Navy lieutenant complained in writing to her

The pure tone threshold audiogram required annually for naval aviators provides limited information toward determining their ability to understand speech in the aircraft. The Naval Aviator's Speech Discrimination Test (NASDT) was developed to evaluate objectively the ability to understand very loud speech in a background of aircraft noise for those aviators whose hearing failed to meet the standards. An earlier study had indicated that there was no relationship between the results of the NASDT and the configuration of the pure tone audiogram; therefore, to further examine this finding, data from pure tone threshold tests and the NASDT were obtained for over 500 men with different degrees of flight experience. Statistical analysis of the NASDT results showed that there was great consistency in scores made by the different groups. No practical correlations between NASDT scores and hearing threshold levels were found. Since the NASDT, therefore, appears to provide a more realistic evaluation of hearing in aircraft noise, it is suggested that it be employed as a supplementary test in the hearing evaluations of all aviators.

This book was donated as a part of the David H. Hugel Collection, a collection of the Special Collections & Archives, University of Baltimore.