The Legislative History of the Glider Program

The Approval and Growth of the Glider Pilot Program

This is the fifth part in a series on the Glider Pilot Program of WWII. You can locate the four previous posts in the series by selecting these links. American Aviation on the Cusp of WWII ; Legislative History of the Glider Pilot Program; Navy Gliders; Washouts or Collateral Damage of the War Dept

I cover the history of the Glider Pilot Program in detail in Suicide Jockeys. The following is a quick rundown of the growth and revisions of the program as a setup for the downward revisions that were put in place.

The Glider Pilot Program was established in February of 1941 as the Experimental Glider Program which was made up solely of military members. It was quickly upgraded in August of 1941 to the 150 Office Pilot Program which was training for glider pilot instructors. It is important to understand that at this point in time there was no final design for the military glider, no materiels set aside for glider production, and no tactical role for the glider in combat operations yet developed. I keep repeating to the point of redundancy that America was not yet on an offensive footing so the glider was seen only as a defensive aircraft. This is very clearly a major consideration in the Congressional discussions on the matter.

On February 19, 1942, the program was again revised calling for 1000 Glider Pilots to be recruited and trained by January of 1943. January of 1943 is when my father, one of the first classes of non instructors to graduate, was shipped to North Africa. For those glider pilots that were deployed to North Africa their numbers were matched to the number of available gliders at that time. That is how new the CG-4A was and those were the gliders that would be used in the Sicily.

On April 1, 1942, an increased forecast for Glider Pilots went out when the program was further revised to the 4200 Glider Pilot Program. This is when the civilian training was accepted, and although the requirements for acceptance will change throughout the program, those utilizing the civilian training will get caught up in the War Departments plans for the downward revisions of February of 1943 in the number of Glider Pilots needed, and the rather questionable methods they utilized to achieve those numbers.

By May 6, 1942 the program was again revised upwards with a forecast for 6,000 Glider Pilots with 3,000 to be trained by September 1, 1942 and the full 6,000 by December 31, 1942. With the current length of the program and training delays this could only be accomplished by reducing the training program to 6 weeks. At this point the length of the training will be reduced only to be raised again. Civilian Aeronautics Association trained pilots that met particular requirements were also accepted. This was in an attempt to increase the pool of those eligible for Glider Pilot training. However as of June 6, 1942, it was realized these quotas could not be met under the established recruitment requirements. This is also the time when all members of the first class were made Staff Sergeants. Both the military and Congress wanted to set the glider pilots set apart from enlisted and ground troops but did not quite give them the status of power pilots. It was also hoped this would attract more volunteers to the program. In a short period of time the rank of Flight Officer was established. There were then said to be no more ‘flying sergeants” (more about that in another post) and most glider pilots remained at that rank throughout the war. A limited number became Lieutenants, a more limited number still Captains and very few Majors. This was due to the structure of slots available for glider pilots at those ranks in Troop Carrier Command.

The military continued to revise the number of glider pilots needed and despite concerns of reaching the 6,000 quota another upward revision was pushed through in August of 1942 calling for 7,800 glider pilots by March 1, 1943. This is the highest number of glider pilots called for. Shortly thereafter, in approximately one month, the number needed would begin a series of downward revisions just as the first CG-4As became available. There were a number of reasons for the downward revisions. One being that with the first Allied glider mission into Sicily and Hitler’s invasion of Crete America began to formulate the combat tactics of the glider. See WWII Glider Pilots: Pioneers in Vertical Envelopment . There had also been many issues with glider production and at a few times, one after the St. Louis crash, the feasibility of the use of gliders.

At the close of 1942 there were 10,294 students in glider training. The Civilian Air Training Program had 5,585 students in pools waiting for training and 3,258 in training when the February 18, 1943 downward revisions hit. The final glider program had grown to a call for 8,000 Glider P

ilots and this was reduced to 4,054 which translated into 5,500 trainees having to be let go and led to what some Congressional members considered the unethical methods of reducing the number of power pilots and glider pilots by the War Department.

How the number of downward revisions was met is an an aspect of the program I have never seen discussed and am not aware of any research that has been done on it and will be the subject of my next post.