The Road to Pilot Training

Existing literature persistently refers to Hmong people in the 1960s as “illiterate.” Chapter 2 presents surviving pilots’ life experiences before they entered the Project Water Pump training program. The complex path that each took to secure a spot on the training roster was influenced by their family backgrounds, education levels, and work experiences. Some made their own decisions while others were thrust into service as a result of their social relations with military leaders. Their pretraining experiences reveal that it was their ability to read and write that enabled the several dozen individuals to participate in aviation training. Most were single young men looking for opportunities to improve their socioeconomic status. Some were married men who had been soldiers. The harsh conditions on the front line motivated them to seek what they thought were better working conditions.