TankerDriver

"Right now" they don't, unless of course you volunteer for one, which a lot of guys are doing lately. Just wait until we get into it with another country in the future and they'll have to activate the guard.

The guard and reserves are a good alternative that allows you to experience military aviation without the additional duties there seems to be more of every day on active duty. I see threads like this all the time comparing going the military route to the civilian route. I did both and it's very hard to compare the two. I spent a few years doing the CFII thing and then joined AD. The thing that most people don't realize is that the AF is not a flying club. There are many other additional duties involved with being an officer than just flying airplanes. You will eat, sleep and poop flying for your first year and a half in UPT, but once you get out and enter the real AF, it seems as though the emphasis on flying quickly takes back burner. Granted, I am coming from the AMC side of the house. I know fighter pilots fly a lot more often (just shorter sorties).

You will get a squadron job. As a LT, you won't get anything too cosmic, but I have seen some LT's put into positions like Commanders Exec Officer (secretary), scheduler, standards/evaluations, etc... because of manning issues. As Force Shaping evolves, there are less people to do more work. As a brand new copilot, in a good month at home station, I was flying 2-3 training sorties a month. That's it. However, I was in the office everyday working a desk job when not flying. Imagine getting into something you thought was going to be a "flying career" and you're flying 15-20 hours a month tops. I've flown about 140 hours in the past 9 months in the tanker, mostly because of additional duties, beyond my control, at home station that kept me from deploying for that long. Trust me, I would have rather deployed flying 100+ hours a month. The AF only expects you to fly for 10 years (3 flying assignments). If you want to play the O-5/O-6 game, you won't be able to do it by just flying. Whether you do 2 flying assignments in a row, a staff tour and then your 3rd flying assignment as a Major or 3 flying assignments in a row and staff tours for the next 8-10 years until you retire, it's up to you, but once you meet your gate months, it gets harder, if not impossible to stay in the jet.

So again, don't look at the military as a flying alternative to the airlines just because the pay is better at first. Sure, the pay and bennies are great as an officer, especially with the tax breaks we get. As a 2Lt on flying status, based on this years pay tables and $600 a month housing allowance (just as an example), you'd be making almost $40,000 a year. With tax breaks, that's about the equivalent of $45k a year as a civilian and that doesn't even take healthcare (free) into consideration. As far as money is concerned, you'll be light years ahead financially if you go the active duty military route for the first 4-5 years. I've been on AD for almost 4 years and I'm making about as much as an 8 year XJet Captain flying monthly guarantee. That doesn't include the $6,000 pay raise I get when I make O-3.

Guard and reserves are a little different. I've heard of some guys making more money in the guard and reserves than you could on active duty, but for the most part, as a part-timer without bennies, you'll have to work another job. I can be a challenge juggling two jobs, but many do it and love the life.

I'm just playing Devil's advocate because I don't compare being an airline pilot getting min reserve with 12-15 days off a month to being in the military, which is 24/7, if need be.