I heard what you are saying now, when I was getting out.

I have about 9 other Pilots/NFOs/SWOs I have known since OCS that all got hit at the same RIF. 7/9 of us were more or less treated like entry level labor in the grand scheme of things, having been told "perform, and you will move up faster"..

Only 2 of us actually saw anything resembling that.

My experience is a lot of companies say they value veterans, preferential hire, blah, blah, rah rah.

It's mostly talk and little action on their part. Most of us heard the same thing, perform, and move up quickly.

By every metric the company tracked, I was the #1 Engineer/Project Manager in the Rocky Mountain Region. I had a reputation for getting the impossible done, keeping equipment running when others would be hard down, etc. Customers would specify "Master comes or no contract".

Yet when I asked for a raise/promotion when I had another offer, I got an ass chewing asking how dare I even ask for a raise when Melonhead (a ****ty engineer) has been there 6 years and hasn't been promoted yet.

So I left. Much happier now.