I'll be the dissenting voice here....I'm taking the bonus and staying in. Don't get me wrong....I'm not drinking the Kool Aid or thinking that things are currently any better than they are -- things do suck and have been getting worse recently. Like others, my opinion on the subject has changed significantly for the worse in the last year or two.
BUT...if the AF is hemmoraging pilots as bad as it appears, perhaps things will change for the positive on AD. Plus, having recently run the numbers for staying in the AF and grabbing a retirement vs jumping ship right now, it's a slightly better bet for me to hang on the last 8 years and get the retirement.
How is staying in the military at this point any different than people applying to Delta or United (where pay and work rules are NOTHING like they used to be back in the day) and hoping that the next contract will improve?
Yes, there are going to be crappy parts -- more deployments, maybe a 365 or a remote...but is that really any worse than starving with no medical insurance in your first year at CAL, or sitting reserve for a couple years at a crappy base you have to commute to?
If it were 10 years ago, and the pay scales were different, it would be a SURE THING -- run, run, run away. But it isn't. In my mind, it's pretty much dead even right now.