The Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program in Texas recently marked four decades of producing top fighter pilots. Gert Kromhout and Frank Crébas went behind the scenes.
On a weekday, Sheppard Air Force Base (AFB), Texas, represents a beehive, as stationed T-6A Texan II and T-38C Talon trainers fly about 250 sorties daily. Sheppard has 8,880 square miles of practice areas at its disposal (equivalent to more than half of the total area of the Netherlands). This includes low-level flight paths and the Frederick Regional Airport auxiliary airfield, also known as Sheppard Auxiliary Field.
Calling Sheppard home is the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT, pronounced ENJIPT) program, the main task of which is to train fighter pilots, while also training its own flight instructors. Young pilots first complete the undergraduate pilot training (UPT) phases in the T-6A turboprop trainer and the T-38C supersonic jet trainer. If they successfully complete that, they progress to the introduction to fighter fundamentals (IFF) phase, also in the T-38C at Sheppard.
