I copied this from another thread so as not to hjact the thread.
As a recently-retired airline pilot with 43 years of flying, I think I could make a contribution in the cockpit, but I know that would be unlikely. Regarding staff positions, I'd like to share a little historical perspective, especially since we are engaged in a war. German ace Adolph Galland opined that the reason the ME-262 was never properly employed in WWII was because no one in the German general staff had any operational experience. We (the U.S.) benefitted. Experience is needed in staff positions.
I saw this first-hand in Vietnam. The idiots at Seventh Air Force had absolutely NO concept of tactical employment. One of our highest-loss Linebacker missions (July 31, 1972) was designed to have us ingress Hanoi from the east, instead of the normal ingress from the west. Seventh Air Force claimed "All of their SAMs will be pointed in the wrong direction"! I later found out why we had such geniuses running the war. When our squadron was tasked to donate a field grade officer for duty at 7AF HQ, the squdron commander did what was best for our squadron: sent the squadron's most incompetent Major, who was a ham-fist and never got his bombs on target. It made sense from a squadron perspective, but the guy contributed nothing to the war effort at NAF level
When I was if the AF at the squadron level, I never wanted to go to the staff. There were a few guys who managed to dodge the staff and still get promoted, they were looked upon as hero's.
Then I went to the staff and saw the utter lack of operational experience. Those that were there, with operational experience, were working their butts off.
What amazed me the most, was when I returned to flying how those that had never experience a staff tour, complained constantly about how incompetent the HQ/NAF/MAFCOMs were. All the while looking at those good competent pilots who dodged the staff as hero's.
Something to think about the next time you see "that guy" who made it all the way through the ranks without the staff tour, and you call the HQ and can't figure out why they are so screwed up.