Same here in the UK. I graduated as a rotary wing Army pilot - as a Corporal! No formal educational qualifications (though I added some along the way later).
The Army were more interested with your potential than your history. Yet the Royal Navy and RAF still insist on Commissioned Officers only as pilots.
During WW2 the RAF had many non-com pilots, but the inception of the nuclear armed V-bomber fleet years later prompted them to change to officers only.