Alright. . . I'll bite: Pilots of Asian Descent? How prevalent are they? (in VFA esp.)

[Swanee]

would you say this is because of the lack of POC entering USN in the first place? My post was basically a long way of asking "no one is going to be favored just because they're white, black, whatever", and to get a sense that yes, generally speaking, the better work you do, the better you fare, no matter your background.

Granted, commenters above have mainly answered this.

I've had a few long conversations with a former NCO I worked with about this. His background and my background are very different. I'm a middle class white guy who's dad was a career USAF/ANG fighter pilot. He is a lower working class black kid who's dad drove a cab and had an 8th grade education. My dad graduated from Cornell with a degree in mechanical engineering. My friend was the smartest man in his family as soon as he reached high school.

Yet, throughout all of it my friend, the NCO, was always the smartest guy in the room. This continued after we both left the USMC and worked for the same company on the civilian side. Later he graduated from a PHD program at Cornell.

Dude would have been just fine as a pilot. When I asked him, "hey man, you're smarter, faster, and better than me, why didn't you try to become and officer and a pilot?"

His response, "Swanee, while I might have seen a pilot on TV, the thought never ever crossed my mind. It's a matter of access, and for a guy like me I never thought it would be in the cards. It was a more reasonable thought for me to play in the NFL than to be a pilot."

Whereas I grew up with military pilots as mentors of mine, he did not.

This is where I really do believe that representation matters.