asdfghjkl

Does anyone know if you can keep your seniority number and benefits with your airline employer after being selected for a pilot slot with the guard or reserves? Seeing as how you would be gone for quite some time and it is considered full time active duty until training is over.

Anyone who has went through this please reply, Thanks.

crewdawg

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

Check out this link. Short answer is YES, they are required by law to keep your position for up to five years. I'm not sure how it goes after that. But five years will be plenty, unless you have some unforeseen delays. Goodluck, it's an awesome experience

rickair7777

You will most certainly keep your seniority number, and you will accrue longevity for pay purposes while on military leave. For pay, seniority, and bidding it will be as though you never left. However...I think they can require you to complete on year of cumulative actual service before they let you off probation.

Benefits are a different story. Some companies voluntarily extend the travel bennies and possibly other benefits. Per TSA rules you will not be allowed to jumpseat while on extended leave.

Also I believe that if a company offers any sort of benefit to other employees who are on leave (such as VLOA), they must also offer the same benefits to military reservists on leave.

rickair7777

The five year thing is not that simple. The employer is required to allow you take up to five years of VOLUNTARY military leave and still return to your job (or a similar job). This is cumulative while you work for that employer, so several periods of voluntary leave which total over five years could put your job in jeopardy. The five year counter starts over if you get a new civilian employer.

But don't worry about the five year thing, the devil is in the details...remember that only VOLUNTARY leave counts. As it turns out most military leave is NOT considered voluntary....

- Initial Military Training
- MOS/Specialty Training
- Reserve Drills
- Reserve Annual Training (I think it is protected regardless of funding source).
- Any involuntary mobilization
- Pretty much any mobilization in support of the Global War on Terror.

This all pretty much sums up the kind of duty which a reservist would normally perform. Also if you do volunteer for mobilization, nowdays the orders would be written as involuntary so as to avoid counting against your five years. Basically you verbally volunteer to be officially invol mobilized.

Only very specialized staff work on voluntary ADSW orders might count against the five years...you probably won't encounter that in your career.

asdfghjkl

Awesome thanks guys. One more thing. Does anyone know about getting LASIK in regards to being a military pilot. I understand you need to wait a year after the surgery to apply and you need a waiver. If I go without getting the surgery do I have to wait until I stop flying for the military to get the surgery or can I do it while I'm still there flying? I'd like to do away with these contacts. Can you pull G's with contacts on?

rickair7777

RK is disqualifying.

PRK has been allowed for a while, but the requirements vary between the services. You will need to get current, official info from the service(s) you wish to apply to. I'm pretty sure that pilot candidates can have PRK.

LASIK used to be disqualifying, but I know that the navy at least was recently doing an experiment which allowed CURRENTLY qualified military pilots to get LASIK. Not sure if that got extended to pilot candidates.

Be aware that requirements for pilot candidates have historically been more stringent than for currently qualified military pilots. Make sure the info you get applies to candidates...just because it's OK for a current military pilot does not mean that it is OK for you as a candidate.

I would strongly suggest that if you currently meet the vision requirements for the program you are interested in...DON'T SCREW IT UP NOW! Wait until you get your military wings, then you can probably get the military to fix your eyes with PRK or LASIK...it will be legal and free.

I think you have to wear glasses while flying military aircraft, not contacts.

DustoffVT

LASIK is approved in the Army. Make sure you have all the paperwork that shows before/after results, etc. The wait period is 60 days.

__________________
"When I have your wounded"

Kilgore Trout

Found this by googling "Army vision clinic". Had read somewhere about Army SF people getting free surgery.
This would probably make a good separate thread for those concerned, maybe it's already been done here?
Good luck in your endeavours.
SGT K.T.
Refractive surgery center for military pilots opens

rickair7777

SF, divers, and pilots have had free surgery for a while.

But once again, do not bet your career on a news article or something you read on the internet...rules change on stuff like this, so get the straight scoop from the service branch in question.

asdfghjkl

That's good advice, I think I'll take it. Now the hard part....getting a unit to sponsor me for UPT.