Huck,
Thanks for your comments. Yeah, I loved to fly, and miss it. Not enough to come back to work and put up with all the crap that you guys are going through, but I am jealous when I look up at a passing jet. There were only two times in my entire flying career when I had wished I was on the ground and not in the air, as opposed to the reverse. Anyway, I agree with you that many guys have lost that love of flying, and not just the older guys. A real pity, as I would guess that the vast majority of us initially took up flying because we liked it. I'm sure some are sticking around for purely selfish reasons, or because they didn't plan their lives well; a lesson for you younger guys. But, if a guy is gaming the system, ie, staying till he has to leave, and gaming the system by judicious use of vacation/sick/etc, I can understand your disdain for that individual, but it is a reasonable approach, at least from his standpoint. I'm sure that if the company were to write a check for unused sick leave, that coupled with selling back the next years vacation, would be such a windfall, that most older guys would bail much sooner. Just my take, though.
JJ (WD)