IT’S ABOUT TIME: The Air Force is considering a step it has long avoided to ease its deepening pilot shortage.

The Air Force has pursued a number of policies to correct that shortage, including quality-of-life improvements, opening positions for retired pilots, and drawing more active-duty pilots from the National Guard and Reserve. The force also has the option to recall retired pilots, but says it will not avail itself of it.

Now it appears the Air Force is considering a step it has long avoided: training enlisted airmen to be combat aviators.

A new six-month pilot-training program will consist of 15 officers and five enlisted airmen, Maj. Gen. Timothy Leahy, chief of the Second Air Force, told his commanders in a November 30 email, seen by Air Force Times.

Currently, the only Air Force personnel eligible to be pilots are commissioned officers, and achieving officer status requires a four-year college degree.

I know more than one fighter pilot who have left the service or are conserving it after being “demoted” to piloting drones. UAV duty would be a great place for the Air Force to conduct a trial run for NCO pilots, because it could prove good for retention — and maybe even great for morale. Non-coms would get to do something the independent Air Force has never allowed, and “real” pilots wouldn’t get stuck with UAVs.

Besides, it shouldn’t take a captain or a major to fly a steel shack in the Nevada desert.