Ok, lots of people don't realize what you'd have to make as a civilian to live like you were in the military. I should have been a bit more clear, but it's not necessarily be $100k cash in your hand. I'm talking everything and in order to separate and live like you were as an O-4 when you're a civilian, you need to take all that into consideration.

O-4 base pay, according to 2006 scales is $5,131.80 a month with 8+ years of service. Flight pay, for someone who has been flying 6+ years is $650 a month. BAS (Basic Allowance for Subsistence) is $187.49 and BAH (Basic Housing Allowance) of course varies with where you live, but where I'm based, an O-4 with dependents makes $1,300 a month. At Travis AFB, it's $1,979. So, all that, using $1300 a month for BAH, an O-4 is making $87,231.48 a year. At Travis AFB, it'd be $95,379.48 a year. An airline is not going to adjust your income for where you live. In addition, BAH and BAS are not taxed. So that's $18k-25k a year that is untaxed. What about free medical? I pay $10 a month for my wife's dental coverage and that's it. Medical is paid for. Even working for a company with a benefits package, what are you paying for medical for a family? $100-150 a month? I have no idea. That's another $1,200-1,800 a year. I didn't even include deployments. Combat pay, tax free, family separation pay. Someone above mentioned the bonus. Take $90k+$25k=$115k a year for an O-4.

Last year, as an O-2, with 7 months of tax free, combat pay, family separation, etc... I made over $65,000. I only paid tax on about $30k of it. Again, I'm not sure why people only look at base pay when calculating what we make. Of course, when you retire, you only get a pension based off of your base pay.