I cannot answer your questions properly, but I will offer this.

Kelly Field in San Antonio Texas, which is now part of the Kelly Annex portion of Lackland Air Force base is one of THE best places to find out about the first military pilots. That should be a good place to start to find some more information about this subject. What I do know is that at least according to the mini-museum at Kelly Air Force Base, pilots were extremely highly regarded and seen in much the same manner as the test pilots of yore, or in a general sense how we view astronauts today. They had relatively rare, specialized training. I'm also fairly certain that then like today, all pilots were officers, which would separate them from the typical ground troop.

Crashing was a big fear among the first military pilots, as until the later parts of WWI military air craft were not far removed from observer type aircraft of the Wright brothers. Kelly AFB is named due to a crash by George Kelly, while serving at Fort Sam Houston.

I hope this gives you at least a place to start from.

Source: Served at Kelly Air Force Base for 4 years