Duke

Sounds like the ops tempo has picked up a lot since I left in '94. I was in GW one and we had some long deployments but things got back to normal after the war was over. From your post it sounds like that hasn't come close to happening for you. You mentioned Reserve and Guard in a previous post but their ops tempo is pretty high also.

It sounds like you've pretty much made up your mind. Just be advised, things aren't always greener on the other side. Getting and keeping a good airline job for 20-30 years has become a total crap shoot. Even legacy airlines go away. There are only 2 airlines that I consider to have any real staying power and they are FedEx and UPS but technological innovations may even kill them off someday. I've certainly been lucky since I got out and have been with the same airline for 11+ years but we've been near bankruptcy once and could be again. We've got guys from United, US Air, TWA, and ATA flying with us. We've also got guys here who have been through as many as 7 airlines and several who have been around when they closed the door on more than one occasion. My best advice for you if you bail would be to have a backup career or maybe rely on your spouse's income until you feel more secure. Hope you get your dream job and it works out great for you (and you make your daughters graduations!).