Listen, honestly, if your goal is the majors this isn't the place. People that left for the majors from here brought the quals with them to AMO. Generally past experience means little once you're on board. It's not a time building job in any way - and you may not even be flying fixed wing. If you go to a primarily helo branch you'll be sent for a rotor rating. None of that time will count towards most major jobs. There are F-18 test pilots and C-17 wing standards guys that are primarily Astar dudes here.

However, you may find that goal changes. To some degree AMO is choose your own adventure, especially off the SW border. There are cool niche jobs. P-3s are going to be a thing for non-prior P3 pilots. It can also be a gateway to other fed flying jobs - there are many, you could find a few on USAjobs now.

Very helpful. Thanks and take care boys

APC lists a lot of locations that are eventual possibilities. From what it sounds like this would be years down the road. Are these actual legit places, or is the info old/inaccurate?

If people are able to transfer, is there any kind of preference, or do you wait for someone to retire and try to escape the SW border?

https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/...ine_operations

Those are legit locations. Some are small units with only a hand full of pilots, some are larger branches. Depending on where you want to go it could be years. The majority of people are on the SW border so getting to a northern location can take some time.

I'm considering an AIA spot to finish off my 5 years of service, and I'm really not interested in being away from home right now. What are the UAS jobs like at CBP? I'm really interested in the QoL aspect of it. What are the workdays like? Should I expect to work a lot of holidays/weekends? Are there many TDYs? Is the pay different for UAS pilots? What are the pros/cons of UAS vs FW/RW? I'm a mil FW guy with no drone time, will it be an issue getting a UAS spot? What are the best bases for UASs?

What do you mean by finish off your 5 years of service? If you are at 15 years of active duty time, doing 5 years in civil service will not magically give you a 20 year retirement.

I have ~14 years AD with another 3 ANG, and about 6 months as a GS employee. I was considering doing at least 4.5 more GS years and buying back my mil time to earn the FERS pension. I'm still in the ANG and plan on getting at least 20 years of mil service.

Does the Guard not have Air Reserve Technician equivalents? aka dual status full timers in the squadron who accrue both good reserve years and get paid GS-12/13 when not in drill status. That would be the ticket for what you're trying to do. Better than to have to commute between a straight civilian GS job and the guard unit.

My unit doesn't have any openings at the moment, but it's something I'm researching as well. I was originally interested in CBP for the opportunity to fly RW, but that seems like it may not be an option. I'm curious about the UAS side of CBP because it seems like the QoL and time at home could be better.

Your buy back time doesn’t count towards your 6C retirement. Have to work 20 years as an AIA to get the full %. I’m not sure if it even counts towards your 5 year vested retirement. If so you would get 15% of your high three years. With the buyback and 20 years 6C you'd get 48%.

Remember that 6C coverage earns 1.7% per year. If you leave before 20 you forfeit that .7%/year. Also new FERS hires pay a much higher percentage of their gross into the system (4.4% for people hired after 2013 vs. 0.8%) makes it not a good deal at all to come short term.

In your situation I’d be looking for a non-LEO flying job. Better yet do 6 more active duty and get a full military retirement. Much higher pension and bennies for just 18 more months time.