Originally Posted by
tbat15
I am a current FTS guy and was a traditional reservist before that. Not trying to screw anyone over in the slightest. In fact when I posed this idea to the traditional guys in my squadron, all said they would do it if able.
This is more about hate the game, vice the player
Originally Posted by
tbat15
It's comical for me to see this holier than thou attitude from the reserve guys on this thread. In the last 5 years of being involved with the reserves, I've regularly seen traditional guys pull way shadier "scams" than anything I've proposed here. Don't worry too much about the stellar traditional reserve reputation being tarnished by a program that can only be used by Active/FTS members.
I've been vocally opposed to those sorts of shenanigans for a long time, and have debated it here on APC.
IMO USERRA exists to enable folks (typically RC but includes civilians who sign up for AC) to leave their employment to serve, and then return (perhaps multiple times).
It does not exist to enable full-timers (or enterprising TR) to lock in a better seniority number and payscale than other airline pilots and keep it on the back burner until they retire from the AC.
Originally Posted by
tbat15
Change is coming though. As scary as it may be to some.
Change is always coming.
AC mentality is accustomed to having priority over all things civilian (see the other thread about the good general). But that is actually not going to work in the private sector in an arena (civilian pilot manpower) where DoD has zero statutory authority. The airlines will "work with" the military right up to the point where it doesn't benefit them, and then they'll tell DoD to pound sand. Want to know more about how that works? Talk to any union leader. The airlines want mil pilots, at their convenience...there is nothing that DoD can give airlines to make them stop hiring their pilots. DoD might be able to influence WHICH pilots get hired by allowing senior staff types to get current in their last year, that's about it. But the ROI for that is nebulous and hard to quantify.
A formal "flow through" program is a remote possibility, but that would be subject to termination for convenience by either DoD or the airline so any participating pilot would be hanging it out on a limb for many years hoping nothing changes.
Maybe SECAF and SECNAV can try to talk congress into allowing STOPLOSS of all AC pilots for the duration of the airline hiring emergency (ie about 20 years). At least that's in their wheelhouse.