Originally Posted by
Merle Dixon
C130driver, trust me, once you get an airline job and start earning second year pay, you will want to work at your Reserve/Guard unit as little as possible. You will quickly realize that your airline job is fantastic, efficient, and fun - flying for the military is so full of BS and queep that you will want to stiff-arm it every month.
I quit my AF Reserve flying job for a non-flying, 2 day a month job, several years ago. I could not be happier. I know numerous dudes who have left the active-duty in the past few years. They flew for the Reserves less that two years and found non-flying jobs (working as little as possible). They got sick of the Reserve flying clown show and want to spend as little time as possible working for Big Blue.
It will happen to you too.
Everybody's experience is different so it may not necessarily "happen to you too." I still enjoy flying in the military and still try to take all the queep in stride. I flew a tac sortie last night and had a blast. Just me and a relatively new LT in the squadron tearing up the pattern and some VFR C-17 flying. My "sacrifice" was just an evening away from my family. The reward was a doing something I still love and getting paid several hundred dollars to do it.
Although the extra pay is nice, I am not in it for the money. Sounds like you just weren't happy anymore. You make the right choice by getting out of the AF cockpit. I am not ready to hang it up yet.
This was not a jab at your decision. I just wanted to provide a balance to the discussion. I'm sorry your experience was not as positive as others.
I live in base for both my Airline and AF Reserve job. Since I am at United, I can "double dip." I was on Reserve for UAL yesterday and still got some C-17 currency. I am sitting at 60% on the DCA 756 so I bid reserve by choice during the school year.
Remember, our mantra in the Reserve is "Family First, Civilian Job second, and Reserves third." Find a good battle rhythm and a good balance. Your job is to be a reservist which is current and qualified to be ready to go if and when they raise the flag. Anything beyond that is bonus to the squadron. If a squadron is demanding more than that, then I would respectfully disagree with their organizational vision/standard for their traditional reservists.
I would argue for every reservist that is p!ssed off at Big Blue, there is another that is pretty content.