Air Training Command (ATC) tended to “eat it’s young.” We would bring back a certain number of recent UPT grads as instructor pilots (IPs). There was both ‘good,’ and bad’ with this practice. We used to refer to these guys as “Plow-backs,” until one of them became ‘offended” with the term. Can’t have that now, can we?
On the positive side, a young kid coming back as an IP got to fly every day. This is so important in a young aviator’s career. In addition, being a young kid, the FAIP could “relate” to students a lot easier than perhaps a prior service guy. And it was fun having them around; they were often highly motivated, generally good pilots, innocent, and willing to do most anything.
Other than their obvious ‘lack of experience’ with “the real Air Force,” the only drawback I ever saw was that they tended to be myopic at times, with their grading practices – especially in the beginning of their careers. Gary Green once observed, “The Air Training Command First Assignment IP knows relatively little about the whole US Air Force flying environment, but in great detail.” How true…
That being said, all-in-all, I enjoyed working with these folks…