Originally Posted by
deadseal
Dude, I can't help but chime in here. Ask yourself this one question. When you are 60 years old, what would you pay to have had more time with your kids? Think about this. What dollar amount? I completely cut ties after 11 years AD. And dude..... It's awesome. I am carpool dad, soccer dad, breakfast maker dad, homework dad, etc etc. tri care and 30 k and a retirement when I'm 60 aren't worth losing these moments . IMHO think about it....all of you
I was doing the Guard, Delta and raising 2 kids all at the same time but living in base (BOS) at the time, still I was gone a lot and I rarely enjoyed a layover because I was on the phone to the Guard trying to work my schedule, training, TDY's, etc. around my Delta schedule.
I was on the B scale at Delta 1985-1990, so the extra money from the Guard was great. After finishing my 5 years on the B scale, I got two months of real paychecks, then was activated for Desert Storm.
.
Saddam Husain called it, "The Mother of all Battles!".
We guard guys called it, "The Mother of all pay cuts!".
I went from $9K a month combined Delta/Guard pay, to $3K per month AD pay at the time (1990-91).
When we were finally released from active duty, the Wife and I had to decide if I was going to stay in the Guard or get out. I was off the B Scale and the company was hiring, buying new MD88's, I got a bottom captain bid in CVG (commuting to reserve, no jump seat at Delta) so I figured it was time to get out of the Guard, too many days away trying to do both, and my wife was now pregnant with number 3.
The moment I decided to get out was when I saw Dick Cheney (Secretary of Defense then) at a press conference, asked about all the cutbacks to our military, base closures, etc. after Desert Storm, "What's the plan was if Saddam regrouped and acted up again?"
"We'll just activate the Guard and Reserves again...".
I figured it would be about 5 year until Saddam did it again and we'd be activated again, and I only had about 8 years in at the time, so I got out.
If you had told me then that I should stay in, because 19 terrorists are going to hijack 4 airplanes and fly them into the Trade Towers and the Pentagon, I would have told you to put down the Tom Clancy book and get back to reality.
If you had told me all the Majors would then go bankrupt, furlough thousands for years, flush our retirements down the toilet, and out source half our domestic flying to 50 seat RJ's, I'd have told you to put down the crack pipe and get back to reality.
"That'll never happen!".
So, yeah, trying to do both jobs and raise kids is tough, but you might want to hold on to that Guard job just in case another 9-11 happens and your airline goes TU.