hjs1971

I figured I'd post this in the major section vs military since it's more along the lines of major flying...the jist is this...for many years, we have had quite a few heavy units, tankers, t-tails, and I think even a few fighter unit that have had pretty much unlimited MPA/RPA funding and it seems to have dried up almost overnight as we turned fiscal 2011. That being said, I know of quite a few people that have had to head back to their major airline gig that they have taken mil leave from for the past 2,4, or 8 years. Is it just a handful that I know or are some of you guys seeing a mass exodus from the govt gravy train back to the airlines? If every guy on mil leave goes back this year (and I know they ALL won't go back), it could very well affect hiring in the near future and those new hires that are going to training now/soon, may be stuck at the bottom of their seniority list a bit longer than they though. Feel free to discuss or discredit...

johnso29

At Delta we had many come back from furlough only to go right back on military leave. They may be active duty rather then guard/reserves, which would make it a moot point.

RunFast

I just got hit with that myself. Expected to get 179 (War Effort) then got told I would get 31 with the chance at more. The Friday before the order started the plug was pulled and now I'm scrambling for days just to make it until I get put back on the Delta payroll. Not at all upset about going back to Delta. Now that we've hired, I can actually move out of NYC/ATL MD88.

What I think will happen is that the budget will get approved and sometime next spring you'll see a lot of MLOA being taken again. If not, you're right, there will be a large number of folks (troughers/bums anyway) that jump back into a category. Couldn't tell you what that would do to seniority or hiring, Delta's big and there are not that many on MLOA.

Flamer

2nd post I've seen about the man day dry up. I think the other was from Scambo. I'm a TR fighter guy....haven't heard any of this at all from my unit. I'm there all the time. Can anybody tell me where I might confirm some of these rumors? Our unit is running status quo....which is a lot of man days. I think we are still a nation at war?

RunFast

You Guard? I'm Reserve and tried to get War Effort backfill days for an AD deployment (2 different ones in fact). Our AD SQ/CC's can't even get steady state MPA days. Our Reserve group is operating on some sort of lease for RPA days until the budget gets approved. There has been some big time cuts that I'd rather not post here, but it got serious on or about 28 Sep.

I've been troughing for two years so it's time to go back anyways, just wasn't expecting the bottom to drop out.

Flamer

I'm reserve. We got multiple AEF spots to fill right now. And we use a lot of man days for pre/post AEF. Bunch of troughers in the FS that should be worried if what you guys are hearing is true. The reserve typically uses a lot of man days each year. That is what I am calling the status quo. It would be a significant hit to active duty if those were reduced by a wide margin. We shoulder a heavy burden. Voluntarily.

RunFast

From what I hear, Reservists actually deploying aren't being hurt. For those of us staying in the squadron, it's dried up. I'm at DM in the new TFI which works in the AD squadrons (we don't have our own jets). AFRC has been asking SQ/CC's how this will impact their units. I'd say quite a bit...

1Seat 1Engine

I guess it's good to know that it's not just me. Luke had tons of mandays avail last year and suddenly...and I mean suddenly...we have nothing. Right now unless something changes significantly, we won't be able to keep our TR's current.

Who knows, in a couple of months they'll probably have more than they can spend.

But right now it's pretty bleak.

hjs1971

I'm surprised to hear the fighter guys chiming in, I thought the problem was mostly on the heavy side. I also thought it was a AFRES only thing since we always go thru the "sky is falling, we have no RPA money" thing only to be told 2 months later, "we have more RPA than we know what to do with", but I know of a few Guard units that had their MPA days dry up as well. Some of it is congressional/DOD budget related and may change but the moral of the story from where I see it, I know of a half-dozen guys that have contacted their airline to schedule requal becuase of it.

scambo1

You are more optimistic on the mil budget that I am - POMMING for fy 12 is by invitation only and you have to be read in - It will be UGLY. Like zero MPA and RPA at 10% of fy 10 levels. That is low. I hope I am Chicken Little, but I dont think so.