RPAs would pay the bills and continue towards a mil retirement at 60. It's not building hours (does that matter if you already have about 4000?) or maintianing currency, but it is directly involved in the fight. FWIW, it's also a job I'd enjoy doing.

I have 10 deployments under my belt, time away from home is not anything unusual. The reason why I'm concerned about mil deployments is that I know an airline job involves spending a lot of time away from home, and adding even more adds to QOL concerns.

But--IHTFP: I'm here to fly planes. Maybe for both mil and civilain at the same time, maybe not.

So with that clarification, I'm still happy to listen to anyone's experiences and ideas on the best way to move forward. The jump out of the military and into the civilian world is a huge step to take with a lot of incomplete information. Many have done this before me, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can from them here.