No, he is a tanker pilot who just went back to teach AF undergraduate pilot training (UPT) students in their initial training aircraft, the T-37.
Translating AF and Fish-speak into english...get comfy this may be a while...<inhale>
UPT is broken up into phases or blocks. First you have the "contact" phase which is composed of a number of sorties (flights) strictly VFR flying and you learn basic VFR flying and aerobatic maneuvers such as loops, aileron rolls, spins, cuban 8s, etc. It has two checkrides, one happens in the middle of the block (mid-phase check) and then the final (final contact) check at the end of the block. Then you have the "instrument" phase, a block of rides where, you guessed it, you fly instrument sorties and it culminates in an instrument checkride. Then you have "formation" phase where you learn basic formation flying skills and a formation checkride. There are also some cross countries and low-level sorties mixed into these. Each flight has proficiency standards which if you dont meet you "hook," or fail, the ride. If it is the last flight of the block (before the checkride) you hook then you have to repeat the sortie. If it is the checkride, you have one mulligan (in the entire T-37 phase!) to redo it. If you hook again you fly an elimination checkride that you must pass to remain in pilot training. This is all the first half of UPT and results in about 100 flying hours in the mighty tweet. Depending on how you progress there you can choose (or if you didn't do so well you are volun-told) your follow on training aircraft. You can go fighters, bombers, heavies, or helos and that is where the training becomes more mission specific and way too complicated to explain. <exhale>
So basically, what Fish said was his student flew the last flight of the instrument block of flights making some mistakes, but he was allowed to go to the instrument checkride, which he then screwed up but for different mistakes.
Clear as mud? Excellent.
