Originally Posted by BeatNavy

By staying active until 20 (for your said reasons) my uncle gave up 8 years of widebody captain pay at delta, experienced the furlough for a while until he got recalled. His Lt Col retirement hardly covers that pay disparity. Sure it's security, but without that "security" he would have been more secure at DAL, would have not been furloughed, and would have had a lot more money at retirement. And probably a higher QOL for longer at DAL. And that's not even counting the intangible cost of dealing with being active duty and the lack of QOL associated with it.

You don't know what the right timing decision is until age 65. Being on the front of this hiring wave is huge. That said, I'd get a seniority number and go find a guard unit to bum in until 20 and at least get something, and be able to drop mil leave when times get tough, furloughs happen, etc.