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Old 11-27-2021, 03:16 PM
  #11  
rickair7777
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Joined APC: Jan 2006
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Originally Posted by lancejohnson View Post
Thank you for the response and insight.
One last question. Would your analysis change if I had a legacy CJO upon separating at 17?
Right now? Absolutely. The seniority growth potential that's available for those starting right now is unprecedented. It would be worth some pain and risk to grab a big handful of that. Primary risk being some medical problem which grounds you long-term, then you'd be doing 9-5 white collar without the AD retirement.

You can finish the last three years in the reserves easily in a non-flying unit, or try to jump through the hoops to get a flying gig. If you're not an O5 (or prior enlisted), make sure you don't have a lot of dead time before you start participating in the reserves... the rules are convoluted and it's possible that you could end up hitting 20 commissioned with only 19 qualifying years. Your retirement would then depend on a HYT waiver to finish that last year (which they have always granted in my experience, but why take a chance). I've seen O4's and even an O5 screw up the reserve retirement math/planning badly, get separated on HYT and end up driving a truck in the Mississippi National Guard to get the ball the last yard or two into the end zone (they get retirement pay for their highest rank in that case).

Also I've observed multiple helo guys in my reserve units get called by the bigs after 6-18 months at a regional (pre-pandemic).

*Caveat: random black swans such as asteroid impact, war, global pandemic, etc can always screw up the best-laid plans in this industry.
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