Pension confusion
Retiring military guy here. I am looking for the basics on pension plans for guys joining the majors with only 18-20 years of flying left before I turn 65. Do I miss any significant benefits if I join up with less than 20 full years of availability? I'm an F-15 guy with only 1400+ raw hours (have my ATP because I added 0.2/sortie in my personal logbook...FAA FSDO accepted), so I may take another flying assignment to get above 1500, but some assignments would prevent me from flying 20 full years with the airlines. Right now I'm leaning towards trying to get a T-38 gig to get the most hours, and retire just in time to salvage 20 years with the airlines. But I'm wanting to know how big of a deal it would be to take a 3 year assignment overseas = being a year or two later to the airlines. I understand the loss of seniority and total career pay, but I'm focused on family QOL and I'd really rather not do the regional tour. Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks!