Originally Posted by Thor

I have 2 honorable discharges, how many do you have?

Those pilots who abuse USSERA serve in a volunteer force, nobody’s been conscripted, drafted, or forced to serve. To claim some moral high ground for “god and county” is a load of horse poop. Every reservist and guard bum I’ve flown with answers the same way when I ask “why do you do it?”. The answer is always “for the retirement”. In fact, if you were to take away the personal enrichment and financial incentive of a military retirement, how many pilots would hide behind USSERA?

As far as being a drag on the system, as pointed out; training, benefits, and extra manpower are all real excess costs borne by the company for which there’s zero ROI. Yes, that is a drag on the network.