Originally Posted by
Hueypilot
A few things:
1. I agree with your overall sentiment. I'm military too and I have A) never flown civilian for hire, and B) haven't really interviewed for anything in over 15 years...so it's paramount that I (we) put in effort to overcome the learning curve.
2. These days, any qualified pilot has a fairly equal shot of getting the job, mil or not. Yes, mil pilots are a "known quantity" and come from a pretty standard background which is why we can and do get hired with less time, but it's not the huge discriminator it used to be. Simply being military isn't enough...work for that IP/EP upgrade and go to safety school...
3. Lots of mil aircrew contributed to GWOT. I'm not sure what AFSOC airframe you flew but I will ask you to please tell your MC-130 brethren to stop doing blacked-out EROs on a very busy Bagram or Kandahar ramp. A) you're on an airfield lit like the Super Bowl, B) no one, including the drunk Rusky taxiing his AN-12 and the Indonesian forklift driver can see you well enough with your lights off, and C) you're not THAT "special" that you require to be blacked out everywhere you go.
4. By the way, it's "lose", not "loose".
5. And keep a sense of humor, I'm just busting your chops.
Regarding #3, they're probably keeping their quals and skills up to date. Not saying you're a C-17 guy, but blacked out ops are a lot less of a disruptor than C-17s going off the side of the runway (Karshi Khanabad), landing gear up (Bargram) and going off the end of the runway (Bagram). See #5 above.
As for what they do, I've been in their cockpits and have seen it firsthand. Not that slick low level, air-drop, NVG, SKE, max efforts and assaults aren't important, but having done all that and then seeing the T2 world, well, I can tell you it is indeed some special and impressive stuff.