7. Helicopter training was both dangerous and prestigious
A candidate to enter helicopter pilot training in the Army could be a commissioned officer with combat experience, or a fixed-wing pilot, or a newly graduated high school student who completed boot camp. Most students who entered the program only to fail (about 15%) did so early in the program. One reason for failing out early was the length of the program, each accomplished week represented an increase in the investment the Army had made in the trainee. Remedial training was an alternative for pilots not making the grade at later stages in the program, which lengthened their stay, but gave the Army a return on its investment.
The entire training program, through Wolters and then Rucker, produced a helicopter pilot with about 200 hours of flight time in his log. After graduation from Rucker, some were sent directly to Vietnam, others to stateside locations for additional training, and some remained behind for a time as instructors themselves. The majority went to Vietnam. Approximately 40,000 helicopter pilots served in the Vietnam War, and of those 2,202 were killed in the conflict, many of them barely out of their teens. About half of those losses were in Hueys operated by the US Army.
