Originally Posted by JohnBurke (Post 1860700)

A lot of us have made sacrifices in a lot of different ways.

Let's not forget that the military pilot has all his training paid for and lives his career at a substantially higher pay with greater benefits than any equivalent civil position, particularly with regard to the level of experience and time in service.

The civil pilot, in the meantime, has paid for his own training, and his military counterpart's training, and for the service member separating and using the GI bill, that person's flight training, too.

A police officer and a firefighter spend their careers for far less money, putting their lives on the line. Nobody offers them flight training as a perk. On and on it goes. Everyone else has to foot the bill for their own training, and scratch their own career out of the rock.

A year of overseas deployment isn't exactly a hardship.

As for contractor v. military; yes, there is a difference. The service member gets a flag on his coffin.

Originally Posted by TheWeatherman (Post 1898779)

I was in the military and received no flight training. Do you think it is the pilots of the military using the post 9/11 GI bill for this purpose? If so, you are significantly misinformed. Most of them have enough hours to get hired right away. I am starting from scratch.

I will trade my 3.5 years living in Afghanistan and Iraq to your "overseas" away from the family work in Italy or Thailand or wherever your "hardship" was any day.

Originally Posted by TheWeatherman (Post 1898779)

I am starting from scratch.

I will trade my 3.5 years living in Afghanistan and Iraq to your "overseas" away from the family work in Italy or Thailand or wherever your "hardship" was any day.

Originally Posted by JohnBurke (Post 1898881)

Many of us started from scratch.

I spent five years between Iraq and Afghanistan. I never cried hardship.

I'll still end up paying for your flight training, too. Go figure.

Originally Posted by TheWeatherman (Post 1898884)

Should have took advantage of the GI Bill then.

Originally Posted by TheWeatherman (Post 1898884)

Should have took advantage of the GI Bill then.

Originally Posted by JohnBurke (Post 1901362)

Irrelevant.

Originally Posted by TheWeatherman (Post 1901395)

ohh, so you must have been one of those contractors living in those cushy compounds on one of the main bases who bought up all the **** in the BX so when we came in from our POS FOB for a couple days, there was nothing left to buy.

Originally Posted by JohnBurke (Post 1901553)

You read a lot into a single word, don't you?

It's irrelevant because long before I spent time on behalf of the government, I had already obtained flight training on my own.

As for what you could or couldn't do as a fobbit, that's your problem. Don't whine about it here.

Not that it's really your concern, but I lived in a tent, primarily, as well as containerized housing. There was nothing "cushy" about the locations I lived. Is any of that relevant to the discussion? Hardly.