While undergoing training in Pensacola (as I mentioned on my UNT page), I was selected for the "strike" track of training, which indicated I would be going to a bomber aircraft: either the B-1 or the B-52. One usually doesn't find out until you get winged, but Air Force decided to move the B-52 nav training to their own navigator training program at Randolph, so I got B-1s by default. But that's a good thing, because being a B-1 WSO was exactly what I wanted to be when I left the Academy to go to nav training! Fighters are cool looking, but I wouldn't want to be a WSO in the F-15E. Fighter pilots think they're gods and rule the world, and they don't like sharing that with a navigator. Plus, they tend to deploy more...not that bombers don't deploy. The B-1 always did the best fly-bys at big Academy events: low, loud, and fast...engines rumbling sending vibrations through the air that set off car alarms. Oh, yes -- that's what I wanted to do.
I have some fly-by pics to scan of all 3 Air Force bomber aircraft while I was at USAFA...I will add those when I get a chance!)
SO! What did I have to do to actually become a B-1 Weapon Systems Officer (WSO)? As I mentioned before, I first had to be a designated Air Force navigator by going through flight training at NAS Pensacola, followed by the Electronic Warfare course at Randalph AFB. Then, I had to report to the Flying Training Unit (FTU -- aka "the schoolhouse") for the Initial Qualification Course (IQC) at the 28th Bomb Squadron, Dyess AFB, near Abilene, TX.