Aged 17, Kuttelwascher started work as a clerk at a flour mill in Kladno northwest of Prague. On 1 October 1934, aged 18, he joined the Czechoslovak Air Force. In March 1937, he qualified as a pilot and was posted to 4 Flying Regiment at Kbely airfield near Prague. There he trained as a fighter pilot, completing his training in May 1938. He was posted to 1 Air Regiment, which assigned him to the 32nd Fighter Unit. The unit was posted to defend Czechoslovak airspace over Moravia and Slovakia, but after the Munich Agreement in September 1938, it returned to base at Hradec Králové in northern Bohemia.