<p>In my day, they had a “Jet Draft”. If your grades reached a certain level, you were going to go jets whether you liked it or not. If you had very low grades - you flew helos. The Maritime Pipeline guys came from that middle group who didn’t have “jet grades” but had better than “helo grades.”</p>
<p>I was told that this process had little to do with the notion that a jet is more difficult to fly than a helicopter. It was a COST consideration. Jet training is MUCH more expensive than helo training. Sending Student Naval Aviators with demonstrated high performance into the jet pipeline tended to reduce the attrition rate in jets. It was VERY expensive for an SNA to get as far as the TA-4 and find out that the gunnery pattern is too dynamic for him, or that ACM (Air Combat Maneuvering) is too big of a challenge to his spacial relationships processing.</p>
<p>In the long run, I theorize that giving people what they want, balanced with what the Navy needs, is the BEST policy. Good performance should be rewarded. And, fundamentally, I think the low performers understand why they didn’t get their first choice.</p>