Training Schedule: Fill & Download for Free

My training has been ongoing for almost 27 years. I will continue to train every day until I can no longer hoist my fat ass up into this truck or the boss has to pry my cold dead hands off of the steering wheel.It started however, in July of 1990 when on a dare from my wife I enrolled in NETTTS. New England Tractor Trailer Training School. I knew from the very first day I climbed into one of their trucks and let out the clutch that this was exactly where I needed to be. I would spend the next two months at NETTTS, graduating first in my class. The two months I spent at NETTTS were full time, 40 hours per week. Half the time was spent in the classroom learning such things as procedure and DOT regs. The book on DOT regulations is a comprehensive list of do’s and mostly don'ts and we’re expected to learn and understand all of them.The other half was spent in the yard learning the basics of driving. Such things as how to back, how to hook up and unhook a trailer, some basic maintenance, and how to do a proper pretrip inspection of the equipment. The rest of the time was actually out on the road terrorizing the local Philly populace.Prior to graduation, our placement councilor had a constant parade of headhunters from various trucking companies stopping by and I was prehired by the largest, Schneider National. I would spend the next 18 years of my career with them.Upon graduating from NETTTS, Schneider shoved a bunch of us newbies into a van and sent us up to their main training facility in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was every inch a trucker boot camp. The days ran on a tight schedule and were at least 12 hours long. Longer if you couldn't get the training truck back to the yard by quitting time, which wasn't unusual.After two weeks of intense training, during which several individuals washed out, we were assigned a driver number and a trainer and now, we were officially truck drivers.The next two weeks I spent on the road with the training engineer. It was both exceptional and memorable as my trainer and I became fast friends. By the end of the first week he paid me one of the highest compliments I have ever received as a professional driver. He fell asleep while I was driving. The next day when it was time to get going he opted for staying in the truck’s sleeper compartment preferring to sleep in with a warning, “Wake me if you hit something.” My trainer and I would remain friends for years to come.At the end if the two weeks we were sent home for a little R & R, but only until Monday at which point we were to report back to our local operating center. We were given our evaluations and then asked to pair up. I would spend the next two weeks running team with another student of my choosing. I had met my partner at NETTTS which made this transition easier. At this point we were assigned a truck, handed a set of keys and given our marching orders.Putting two newbies in a truck to fend for themselves may sound strange, but there is a method to the madness. The logic is two new guys will learn faster from each other.At the end of the two weeks of mandatory teaming, my partner and I decided to stay together. Teaming is especially stressful. The truck only stops for fuel and comfort stops. We’d swap out every five hours and, in the meantime try to cop some zzzz’s in a vehicle that's loud and jolting. I know on one occasion when I was driving, I hit the brakes causing my partner to become ejected from the bunk, landing between the seats. He was not a happy camper.After two months of teaming, my partner decided to leave for personal reasons. It was the biggest favor he could’ve afforded me. From that very first day alone, I knew there would never be another person in the truck with me. I thrive on the solitude.In 2008 I found it necessary to make a change for personal reasons and it was time for Schneider National and me to part ways. As much as I hated to do it, I needed to be home more than once a month and I made the difficult decision to leave long haul behind.I was extremely lucky enough to find a company that was able to accommodate my needs. It's a small, family owned company with about 200 drivers. I’m treated with respect and as an individual and have since become one of their senior drivers with an impeccable service record.To wrap it up, 27 years ago my trainer told me, the day you don't learn something new is the day you hang up your keys. I’m happy to say that I am still learning and growing.Sorry, gotta go. My ride’s here

I grew up 30 miles from the birthplace of the Republican Party. And I was a public school teacher in that state, the son of two public school teachers in that state.Let me tell you what the Republican Party did to my first career as a public school teacher.First, a little background, because this is actually relevant.Teaching in Wisconsin up to 2010When I was young in the 90’s, the economy was doing pretty well, and the teachers’ union was hauling districts to arbitration over pay raises.See, the private sector was doing great. Folks were getting thousand-dollar bonuses just because the companies were doing awesome. Raises were common, often 4–5% a year.Districts didn’t want to pay that, so the unions took them to arbitration, and arbitrators consistently came back with awards consistent with the prevailing wage increases of the private sector.So Republicans passed a law called the Qualified Economic Offer, or QEO. Basically, as long as the districts and state offered a certain percentage increase, the unions were banned from taking it to arbitration. It was about 2.5–3%. At the time, all my folks’ private sector friends were laughing at my parents.After the dot-com bubble burst and took a sizable piece of the economy with it in the early 2000’s, that laughing turned to resentment after a couple of years when the teachers were still getting raises slightly over the cost of living while the private sector had seen serious contraction.Bush deregulated the health care industry, and premiums and deductibles started skyrocketing. When I was a child, a thousand dollar deductible was considered outrageous and only for catastrophic insurance at the fringes of the market. My uncle recalls that family health insurance when I was a child, whole family insurance with dental and vision, was $40 a month through his employer. By the time I was a teenager, that had more than tripled for the average family.So, suddenly, this QEO was looking no longer like a way to stick it to the teachers and keep them from these massive arbitration awards and resentment grew at the “sweet deal” giving teachers a raise above the private sector every year. So, it was repealed by those same Republicans.I graduated from college right about the Great Recession. I was student teaching while it happened. I watched the markets crash every day when I checked the Dow at the end of school.My mentor teacher had been on a wage freeze for five years. (To pre-empt the peanut gallery, yes, Democrats were in charge of the state during that period. The question asked about what Republicans have done, and it’s not a binary white-hat-black-hat situation.) What she was forced to pay into health insurance had gone up by 10% in that span; literally every year she was making less than the year before in take-home pay.It was pretty grim for teachers at that time in 2008–2009. We all thought it was the bottom.Then the Tea Party took over.Scott Walker and Act 10In 2010, Scott Walker got elected. The very first thing that he did upon taking office in 2011 was to gin up a financial “crisis” for the state by using some accounting tricks to come up with a three-billion-dollar budget shortfall and claiming the state was flat broke.[1][1][1][1] He used this justification to ram through, with as little public debate as possible, breaking multiple open meetings laws and open records laws, a bill called Act 10.[2][2][2][2]Act 10 was aimed at gutting public sector unions, particularly targeting teachers and municipal workers. The police and fire unions, in a naked display of political favoritism, were exempted because they supported Walker’s election bid.The Act kept unions alive in name, but puts draconian restrictions on them. The only thing that the unions can bargain collectively for now is over base wages, capped at inflation and based on the lowest rung of any pay scale used. A 30 year veteran teacher with a master’s degree would only see a raise capped at inflation and based on a first-year teacher’s salary, if any raise were issued at all.Unions now have to recertify every single year, not by a majority of votes cast, but a majority of possible votes. Anyone choosing not to vote is considered a no vote, in other words. Failure to recertify means that the union was dissolved and barred from re-forming for five years.Public sector unions are barred under Act 10 from collecting “fair share” payments. Under Federal laws, unions must represent all workers in a place of employment, whether they are part of the union or not. Fair share laws were designed to fix the “freeloader” problem; they provided a reduced payment collected from non-union employees to offset the cost of the fact that the union had to negotiate their contracts as well.Since the unions now had to cover the entire state’s public employment, but could essentially no longer collect any dues or fair share payments from anyone who didn’t want to pay up, and because they were relegated to essentially powerlessness over any working conditions, union enrollment dropped by more than half virtually overnight.Oh, it gets better.See, Walker made the assumption that teachers paid nothing towards their health care insurance and pensions.Some districts, as a fringe benefit to make up for low salaries, had been paying the employee’s share of the required pension payments. Additionally, unions had made the choice to push for continued benefits like health insurance rather than salary increases over the years. Other districts, especially rural districts with declining enrollment, had been already requiring their teachers to pay more significant costs towards health care for several years already.Walker’s assumption was that every school district had been giving their employees everything for free, and that’s how he sold it to the people of Wisconsin.So, that justified a $1.6 billion dollar cut to public education, which would be “made up” by forcing all teachers to pay more for health insurance and pension costs. It barred districts from making up any of that cut by increasing property taxes. The average district cut was in the millions of dollars.In the first district I taught in, this resulted in every teacher taking between a ten to twenty percent pay cut.Act 10 gutted tenure protections and civil service protections, to “give districts tools” to manage these draconian cuts. It was supposed to make it easier to fire bad teachers. In the hands of honest administrators, it did.In the hands of dishonest administrators, we ended up with what Hustisford School District chose to do: fire every single teacher in the district and offer them their jobs back… at first-year salary. A 30-year veteran teacher with a master’s degree would have to return to work with an effective 50% pay cut, and be paid the same as a teacher fresh out of college with a bachelor’s degree.The UW SystemMore cuts were leveled at the University of Wisconsin System, one of the oldest completely public higher education systems in the nation, and the most extensive system of technical colleges, 2-year colleges, and 4-year institutions in the country. My alma mater was saddled with enough cuts that it is now facing a five-million-dollar-per-year structural deficit. As with the public school districts, those cuts came with specific bars against raising tuition to make up any difference.Walker’s justification was that all of these cushy professors were only teaching one or two classes and worked less than ten hours a week. This was rated “pants on fire,” but that didn’t stop Republicans from reciting the party line.Wisconsin is now absolutely desperate for public teachersAfter eight years of this, Wisconsin’s enrollment in teacher training programs is at record lows. Ten percent of the profession quit within the first year after Act 10 passed.[3][3][3][3] The attrition rate still remains above the national average.Rural districts with low tax bases are especially hard hit. High-tax-base communities like Mequon can afford to pay substantially higher salaries and benefits, and so they poach more qualified or highly-respected teachers from rural or lower-base areas.My brother-in-law, an orchestra teacher, was offered a five-figure signing bonus and a 10% salary increase to switch districts across the state to a wealthier community. Great for him; can’t blame him for taking it. The more rural community he left is now considering cutting the orchestra program because they can’t find a teacher willing to take the job. They’ve been making do with a band director who doesn’t really know strings for two years.It’s gotten so bad that legislators have considered multiple proposals to offer provisional licensure to people who have literally no educational or pedagogy training whatsoever if they have any experience tangentially related to the field they want to teach in.Technology education has been especially hard-hit, because those teachers realized five years ago that they could make twice as much in the private sector as engineers and welders.Morale is at an all time lowMy friends who are sticking it out in education right now are reporting that morale has never picked up even a little bit in the last six years.Communities in general continue to believe that teachers are getting a sweet ride at the public trough, even though more and more of them are needing to take up second jobs to make ends meet. One of my best friends works at Olive Garden three nights a week and on weekends to pay her bills. Another works the security gate for Fleet Farm so he can grade papers while at his second job.In my last year of teaching, I was called a glorified babysitter by a parent at a conference. I did the math on the board right in front of them, just for their kid, for the amount of time I spent with that kid, at $5/hour. It was more than their property taxes. (That parent got pissy and left my room in a huff when I figured the final numbers.)Why did I leave?I was doing nothing but fighting battles for my students. I was putting in, on average, a 75–80 hour work week, and 90 hours a week was not uncommon. I’d get to school at 6:30 am to beat the copier rush, and typically stayed until 5–6 pm working with students, to go home and down a bite of whatever I had in my constantly-running crock pot, and grade and lesson plan until 10 PM to midnight. Lather, rinse, repeat. 12–14 hours on Saturday, often another 6–10 on Sunday; more if the end of a quarter approached.And I made $35,500 for that.The school board came out with a new wage schedule for us that it expected would cover the next thirty years.If I got every raise, every pay scale step increase, got a master’s degree and National Board certification, never got married, had a child, or incurred any serious debts, and assuming the long-term average in the stock markets and that Walker didn’t screw up the pension system (something he’d been considering,) I calculated that I’d likely be able to retire at 76.Seventy-six.If I lived frugally and saved wisely and was very, very lucky.I asked some of my friends what they thought. They all pointed out that I’d considered law school in the past, and that I had a passion for much of what I could do there.I made the decision to apply to law schools, resigned my teaching position, and never looked back. And I have never regretted that decision for a moment.The attitude towards education in the Republican Party has gotten worse, not betterI’ve attended various Republican Party meetings, trying to change things from the inside. I despair that nothing will change their minds, and if anything, anti-intellectualism has gotten more entrenched.From fears over Common Core standards to the pervasive belief that public education is simply a waste of money and we should all go back to private schools and homeschooling, it is clear to me that the beliefs in the Republican Party right now are decidedly against public education.I’ve heard nothing but praise for Betsy DeVos as she attempts to dismantle the Department of Education. (If only it weren’t for that “deep state” that stymies her! Actual thing heard at one of these meetings with knowing nods all around.)A significant majority of the people at these meetings either homeschool their kids or send them to private religious schools. Those who do not are mysteriously quiet and will not meet my eye when I try to get their views on the topic.When I ask about the local schools, most reply that their local public school is pretty good. However, they will invariably tell me that they are absolutely certain that public education itself is failing and that schools elsewhere are terrible because something something PARCC and international tests. Do they know how standardized tests work? No. Would they like me to explain it to them? Eyes glaze over.I’m one of them, you see. Those edumacated folks. Those people who think they know more because they got a piece of paper hanging in their office. (I’ve been told this to my face and heard it plenty of times behind my back.)The Republican Party doesn’t want to see public education. They want to see publicly funded education, and that as limited as possible. They want their children to go to schools that teach an ideology that they want, and to keep their kids away from certain other kids.And so public schools will simply continue to become a dumping ground for high-poverty students and kids with special needs.Elsewhere around the countryRepublican stronghold Kansas has been forced to go to a four-day week amidst teacher shortages because they can’t even fund schools enough to keep the lights on that long. Teachers have to have the four-day week to get second or third jobs to afford to make it work.[4][4][4][4]Teachers are fleeing South Carolina[5][5][5][5] and other typically red states to work in states that are adequately funding education and fostering public respect towards teachers.Why is the Republican Party often portrayed as being against public school teachers?Because my experience, the experience of my colleagues, and the evidence all suggest that they are.Footnotes[1] Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Wisconsin is broke[1] Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Wisconsin is broke[1] Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Wisconsin is broke[1] Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Wisconsin is broke[2] Wis. Assembly Cuts Union Rights[2] Wis. Assembly Cuts Union Rights[2] Wis. Assembly Cuts Union Rights[2] Wis. Assembly Cuts Union Rights[3] Here's what happened to teachers after Wisconsin gutted its unions[3] Here's what happened to teachers after Wisconsin gutted its unions[3] Here's what happened to teachers after Wisconsin gutted its unions[3] Here's what happened to teachers after Wisconsin gutted its unions[4] Amid teacher shortage, four-day school districts can't afford to go back, superintendents say[4] Amid teacher shortage, four-day school districts can't afford to go back, superintendents say[4] Amid teacher shortage, four-day school districts can't afford to go back, superintendents say[4] Amid teacher shortage, four-day school districts can't afford to go back, superintendents say[5] Classrooms in Crisis: Why SC teachers are quitting in record numbers[5] Classrooms in Crisis: Why SC teachers are quitting in record numbers[5] Classrooms in Crisis: Why SC teachers are quitting in record numbers[5] Classrooms in Crisis: Why SC teachers are quitting in record numbers

The vast majority of fighter aces were German, but every major power had some very good pilots too.USA:Major Richard Ira Bong: Born in 1920, Bong is the US’ most decorated fighter pilot and the country’s top flying ace of the war. He is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese planes. He sadly died while test-flying a jet shortly before the war’s end. Major Bong was buried in Poplar, a small town in Wisconsin.Richard BongMajor Thomas Buchanan McGuire: Only just behind Bong at 38 confirmed kills, he too was killed doing what he loved most: flying. During a dogfight with a Ki-43, Major McGuire’s P-38 stalled at low altitude due to heavy maneuvering, and snap-rolled into a nosedive towards the ground. He almost managed to pull out of the dive. Perhaps if he had jettisoned his droptanks at the start of the engagement, he might have made it. Major McGuire was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery, and has a memorial at his fatal crash site on Negros Island in the Philippines.Richard Bong / Thomas McGuireUK:Squadron Leader Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle (Pat Pattle): After being rejected by the South African Airforce at age 18, he travelled to the UK and joined the RAF in ‘36. At the start of the war, he was stationed in Egypt. After the invasion of Greece, he was stationed there with his squadron. Squadron Leader Pattle crashed into the sea near Athens after taking off against orders. He was last seen battling German Bf 110 heavy fighters. His Hurricane crashed into the sea during this fight, and Pattle was killed. He is considered to be the UK’s top flying ace, with estimates of his kills ranging from 40 to almost 60.Pattle (left) in front of a Hawker HurricaneAir Vice Marshal James Edgar ‘Johnnie’ Johnson: Johnson flew over Europe almost without break from 1941 to 1944, and was involved in battles such as the Invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Market Garden. He scored 34 individual victories, 7 shared, and one on the ground. At the end of the war, he had progressed to the rank of Group Captain (OF-5, Captain or Colonel in other services). He died of cancer in 2001.Johnson in front of (what I believe to be) a Spitfire Mk XIVSoviet Union:Chief Marshal of the aviation Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub: after his first military flight on 26 March 1943, Kozhedub scored his first kill on a Junker Ju-87 Stuka on July 6th of that year. Flying 330 combat missions during WW2, Kozhedub scored 64 aerial victories, making him the highest-scoring Allied ace. Interestingly, two of those were US P-51 Mustangs that mistook Kozhedub’s Lavochkin fighter to be German. Kozhedub was forced to defend himself, downing the two US fighters. This story has not been confirmed, however. Kozhedub was also made Hero of the Soviet Union - the highest distinction in the Soviet Union -no less than three times. He died at the age of 71 in 1991.A highly decorated Kozhedub smilingMarshal of the aviation Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin: only 3 victories behind Kozhedub, Pokryshkin was the Soviet Union’s second fighter ace. He, too, continued his career after WW2 and ended as the Marshal of the aviation. Fittingly, this was just one rank below Kozhedub. He almost ended his career before it even properly begun by going against the establishment in an attempt to change the horribly outdated Soviet fighter tactics of the time. He was scheduled to be court-martialed, but once word of his actions reached his superiors in Moscow, he was promptly awarded and promoted. He scored 47 of his victories in a lend-lease P-39 Airacobra, making him, quite ironically, both the highest scoring P-39 pilot, but also the highest scoring pilot flying a US-designed aircraft. Very much like Kozhedub, Pokryshkin was also a three-time Hero of the Soviet Union. He died in 1985, age 72.Pokryshkin with a hefty amount of medalsJapan:Lieutenant Junior Grade Tetsuzo Iwamoto (“Tiger Tetsu”): credited with at least 87 aerial victories, including 14 in China, Iwamoto was Imperial Japan’s top scoring fighter ace of WW2. After the war, he was summoned to MacArthur’s office twice, when the Allied Occupation Forces were searching for war criminals, but Iwamoto was not declared one. In the summer of 1953, he suffered a stomach ache. Doctors wrongfully diagnosed his Appendicitis as Enteritis. After a series of operations, he complained of a backache. It was decided to operate on him again, and this time they removed three or four ribs - without anesthesia! This led blood poisoning, which would end up killing him. His wife recalls him saying: ‘When I get well, I want to fly again.’. He died on 20 May 1955.IwamotoShigeo Fukumoto: Japan’s second ace, credited with 72 victories, held the rank of Warrant Officer. Other than that he did not survive the war, I was not able to find any information on this man. He flew the A6M Zero, and I am rather surprised that a pilot with such a high victory count lived and died without a trace.A picture of a Japanese pilot that is believed to be FukumotoNow, before we get to Germany, I should point something out. You may have noticed that the Russian numbers are higher than the UK/US, and that the Japanese numbers are higher still. This is due to differences in ideology and tactics, and due to the strategic situation during the war. While the US and UK managed to set up a good training program and were able to recruit a lot of new pilots, this was not so much the case in Soviet Russia, and especially not in the Axis nations. Germany, Japan and Italy were all suffering from a serious lack of manpower. This meant that while US Heavy Bomber crews could rotate home after 25 missions, Axis crews had no such option and would often fly until death or the end of the war. As a result, German fighter pilots especially would rack up frankly ridiculous numbers of kills, as will become apparent soon.Germany:Major Erich Alfred Hartmann (“Bubi” / The Black Devil [by Soviet pilots] / The Blond Knight of Germany): after joining the Luftwaffe in 1940, Hartmann completed his fighter training in 1942. He was placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe’s most experienced fighter pilots, and developed his tactics. This would end up earning him the highly prestigious Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds - at the time Hartmann got it, it was the highest decoration in Nazi Germany. He scored his final victory only hours before the war ended on May 8th. He took off with his wingman at 8 ‘o clock on a reconnaissance flight. They spotted the Soviet army just 40km away from the airfield, and two Yak-9 fighter planes entertaining the long columns of troops by doing loops. Hartmann and his wingman decided to spoil the fun, and Hartmann dove in from 3,700m and shot down one of the Yak-9s. However, he spotted shiny dots up in the sky. Presumably knowing that there were no other German flights nearby, he concluded that they were P-51s, and, not wanting to get stuck between a rock and a hard place, he and his wingman fled at low altitude, using the smoke over the area as cover. After landing, he learned that the airfield was within range of Soviet artillery, so his squadron (Jagdgeschwader 52) decided to destroy 25 aircraft, along with munition and fuel, rather than have it fall in enemy hands. He later recalled this, saying ‘We destroyed twenty-five perfectly good fighters. They would be nice to have in museums now.’. During World War 2, Hartmann was credited with shooting down 352 enemy aircraft. He surrendered to US forces, but was turned over to the Red Army. He was sentenced to 25 years of hard labour, but spent 10 years in various prisons and gulags before his release in 1955. He then joined the newly formed West German German Air Force, and served until 1970, when he resigned due to his opinions on the F-104 Starfighter and the resulting clash with his superiors. He died in 1993, aged 71.Hartmann when he was still a Hauptmann. His nickname, ‘Bubi’ means ‘The Kid’. I think this photo perfectly demonstrates why he had this nickname!Major Walter Nowotny: he joined the Luftwaffe in 1939, completing fighter training in 1941. He was then assigned to JG 54 “Grünherz” on the Eastern Front. He was the first pilot to achieve 250 victories, of which 194 were in 1943 alone, which earned him the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. For propaganda reasons, he was ordered to cease operational flying in October 1943 (quite understandably, the Germans did not want to give Allied forces the opportunity to shoot down such a highly-decorated fighter pilot). However, due to the aforementioned shortage of pilots, he was returned to frontline service in September 1944. In November of that year, his Me 262 crashed after combat with USAAF fighters. While he was not Germany’s second fighter ace, as all the other second entries for each country have been, I chose Nowotny for his involvement in testing and developing tactics for the 262, and the fact that the very first operational jet fighter wing, Jagdgeschwader 7, was named Nowotny in his honour. Nowotny also formed a fighter Gruppe for testing the 262, named Kommando Nowotny, after him.NowotnyGeneralleutnant Adolf Joseph Ferdinand Galland: quite a ways down on the list of German fighter aces, Galland scored ‘only’ 104 confirmed victories. However, Galland was involved in some interesting events as General der Jagdflieger. As the war carried on, he and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring found themselves opposed to each other more and more often. One such event was when German fighter forces came under increasing pressure by Allied bombing raids, and Galland proposed to Göring that the Luftwaffe should save planes and pilots, and should instead take the time to regroup and conserver air strength. Göring refused, ordering every bombing raid to be countered with full force, regardless of the Allied fighter escort. Erhard Milch said of this meeting that Göring ‘Just could not grasp it’. By October 1943, Göring demanded that more heavily-armed fighter planes were to be produced and used against bombing raids. Göring, influenced by Hitler, wanted very heavy cannons to be installed. Galland raised several objections, stating that the cannons would be very prone to jamming, the planes would be hard to maneuver, and that the use of inappropriate weapons resulted in heavy losses. Göring ignored these objections completely. Galland was a big fan of the 262, and one of the people to recognize its potential as a fighter instead of a bomber, as Hitler intended. After a lot of unsuccessful trying, Galland was finally able, due to his personal relationship with Albert Speer, to maintain a small number of 262 fighters, until finally Hitler allowed one in twenty 262s to be used a fighter, finally allowing Galland to form all-jet units. After serious conflict with high-ranking officers, Galland was relieved of his duties, and effectively placed under house arrest. When Hitler heard of this, he ordered ‘this nonsense’ to stop immediately, and Galland was given command of his own unit of 262s. Galland, not pretending to be perfect, recognized and took partial responsibility for several serious errors in the Luftwaffe. He died February 6, 1996, aged 93.Major Adolf GallandA couple of hours and eleven pilots later, I think you should have a pretty idea of who (and why!) the best pilots of World War 2 were.