After 9 months (plus 2 years of being furloughed) at TSA, I missed a phone call on reserve because my phone didn't have service plus I was sick anyway (had called in sick the day before). I called in sick around 7am (my reserve started at 5am) and said I should be good to go the next day but just wasn't healthy enough yet. They told me they had already called and tried to assign a trip to me that had a show time in a few hours. I said I never got a call and I was too sick to do it and they had to report that I was "uncontactable on reserve" to the CP.

I flew the line for a few more weeks and had a meeting with the CP immediately after I finished a trip. I landed in STL, got in my car, drove straight to the CP's office and they asked me for my badge, books, and brass. Unfortunately since I was on probation (even though I was hired in '08) I couldn't do anything about the situation. Another pilot off probation was in exactly the same situation as me a couple days before me and just had to write a "letter of commitment" to the company. Fact of the matter is I had checked out of the career long before any of this happened. I wish I'd had the balls to get out sooner.