Originally Posted by
AirBear
Doing the calculator at
military.com this is what I come up with for an 8yr O-3 drawing BAS, BAQ, and Flight Pay: $123,830. That's using CLT for BAQ which is a low to moderate COL.
Throw in the max bonus for signing your life away ($50K) and you're looking at $173,830 annually.
After making O-4 it's $196,078 total with bonus. O-5 is $204,841.
Looking at someone like Delta you're making over $150K by year 2. And factor the spouse working, something they may not be able to do when getting a PCS every 3-4 years.
The Air Force has never been able to manage their pilot force. In 1989 we were offered a bonus to sign up until year 14. Back then the commitment for pilot training was 6-7 years I think. I was in from spring 1981 until early 1989.
I remember how the wives of the O-4's were so angry because O-3's would be making more if they took the bonus. O-4's weren't eligible. Of course some squadron commanders misused the bonus as a "loyalty test", if you didn't take it you weren't a "team player".
I remember reading in the past few years they changed the promotion percentage from O-3 to O-4 to 100% to encourage pilots to stay in. Basically unless you really screwed up you'd make Major. That was a smart move that might have helped some. But AFAIK they haven't done the one thing many pilots want.....to keep on flying, not do desk jobs. A professional pilot track.
I think most people that complain about staff work A) didn’t spend most of their flying time in wars and B) probably didn’t have a staff job. There are jobs where you’re going to work your butt off, but they are generally very selective and the people want to be there for the career progression benefits they provide. Most however, are jobs where you got more time at home with your family while making the same pay that you would have in a cockpit spending those same years away from them.
To the original topic, though, unless they’re lazy, those eligible to separate today are O-4s (at least in the USAF). This won’t make a dent in much. By that point, those that were going to get out still will and those that were going to stay in anyway will get paid more than they have been offering in recent years. Good deal for the latter.