Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria, U. S. Air Force Warfare Center commander, has a laugh with Airman 1st Class John Patterson, 33rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, after completing his final qualifying flight in the F-35A Lightning II on Sept. 26 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)
The first general officer has completed qualification training in the F-35A.
Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria, commander of the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, completed the training on Sept. 26 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Silveria topped off the seven-week training regimen with five hours of flying in two back-to-back sorties along with a hot pit refuel.
“The Warfare Center is so involved with the development and future of this aircraft that it was important for me to see and experience this new program at the lowest tactical level and bring that knowledge base back to the higher level strategic discussions with groups like F-35 program office and Air Combat Command,” Silveria said in an Eglin release. “The training provides me insight into the entire spectrum of the F-35 program.”
Silveria is an F-15 pilot with 3,800 hours in the F-15C/E, T-37 and T-38.
Silveria was picked for the training because of his experience and because the Warfare Center handles F-35A operational testing, tactics development and advanced training, according to the Eglin release.
“It is everything we want it to be as far as training our F-35 pilots and maintainers,” he said. “It’s only the beginning, but it is easy to see the wing and other services are ready to handle the increase in students as this program begins to grow quickly.”
