"on rsv"? Since when? I've held a line for a while now. And yes, I know some of these stories. They are not shy to brag about them. Most FO's have no sympathy for them.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Lol, I just jumpseated behind an AA FO who hid on mil leave for FIFTEEN years and flew twelve hours of FO IOE with Envoy before flowing.

When did he flow?

Don’t remember, but awhile ago.

So pre LOA. That can’t happen now.

Yea, obviously

Unfortunately there are quite a few ex mil guys that play shenanigans like that. There are also a bunch that are super cool. That being said I'm not sure why the company (AA) has such a hardon for exmil guys, or reserve guys, etc. with all their scheduling issues and potential to play the system.

Everyone knows it happens but federal laws don't allow for investigation of it.

1. Military is a known quantity, both from a pilot and employee perspective.

2. It's illegal to discriminate against them, and it's very easy for the Fed to deny various government contracts to employers who don't comply with rules regrading vets and current mil. Also the PR would very bad, intolerable for a large brand like AA (or any other legacy).


What happens?

The only "abuse" is where someone goes out on mil leave but does not actually serve mil duty while on leave.

ANY other military duty where the military pays you (or even puts you in a very rare non-pay duty status) is 100% legit. That includes purely involuntary orders to deploy overseas, as well as "voluntary" orders at your local home station. Typically if they need a body they will ask for volunteers first, so as to avoid doing an invol on somebody who might be in a bad position for that (family, career) at that moment. Just because it's mutually agreeable in no way makes it less legit.

If there is a duty status or orders in hand, than there's nothing possible to investigate. Period, it's black and white. However, if someone takes mil leave and is NOT on duty, any airline will throw the book at them, rightfully so. And when the airline is done, the military will throw their book at him too. A CO can (and will) terminate someone's career for that with the stroke of a pen.

As a leader, I encourage my people to do one year at an airline job before volunteering for orders. But it's their call, out of the goodness of their hearts, and in NO way mandatory.

Why military, because they either have or will have military retirement. That softens the blow to low pay when its subsidized by military retirement. Just an opinion.

That's inconsistent. My generation pretty much all have the retirement (and medical) because the industry sucked arse for so long that we all ended up sticking with the reserves whether we wanted to or not.

Today's generation is much more inclined to make a clean break from the mil, so no reserve duty, pension, or medical. Some of them will doubtless regret that.

A retired officer's pension certainly enables him to work for a regional, but regionals (airlines) don't seek them out because they have a pension. Civilians make up the large majority of their hires today, so they have to compete on the civilian market. Also a typical retired officer (family, mortgage, kid's college funds) cannot even remotely live on the pension. Really only a general or flag officer could (kids out of the house).