Originally Posted by
Fluglehrer
John, were you in the service, or a contracted pilot?'
If you were a contracted pilot, thanks for your service to the war effort in a combat zone. Just remember that there is a difference between your knowledge of your contract before committing and the more open-ended nature of a military commitment. They are not the same (and I'm not sure that's what you are saying, it just seems you are saying they are equivalent when you said "a lot of us have made those sacrifices")
A lot of us have made sacrifices in a lot of different ways.
Let's not forget that the military pilot has all his training paid for and lives his career at a substantially higher pay with greater benefits than any equivalent civil position, particularly with regard to the level of experience and time in service.
The civil pilot, in the meantime, has paid for his own training, and his military counterpart's training, and for the service member separating and using the GI bill, that person's flight training, too.
A police officer and a firefighter spend their careers for far less money, putting their lives on the line. Nobody offers them flight training as a perk. On and on it goes. Everyone else has to foot the bill for their own training, and scratch their own career out of the rock.
A year of overseas deployment isn't exactly a hardship.
As for contractor v. military; yes, there is a difference. The service member gets a flag on his coffin.