They have way too many unnecessary senior staff/leadership positions to begin with. That’s the problem, not the lack of officers to fill them.

Maybe. But the navy knows that you need shore-rotation positions to allow folks to catch up on their lives after a three-year sea tour. Many of those positions are relatively light duty for the pay (used to be, but not so much anymore) but a necessary cost of doing business.

AF may be struggling to come to terms with that since sustained, routine hardship deployments are relatively new to them.

Do you have direct knowledge of Army Avn OP's over the last 15 years?? A continuous rotation of 1 year in theater /1Year Conus (when equipment is rebuilt and PME is completed). Reserve/Guard are 1/3...along with rebuilding the civilian career and PME

You're kiddin', right?
AF has been flying a combat mission ATO every day (EVERY-day) since August, 1990.
Desert Shield
Desert Storm
Operation Northern/Southern Watch
Kosovo
Afcrapistan
Iraq
Libya
Syria
Operation Noble Eagle (CONUS CAP)

We just went over 10,000 days of continuous, armed combat flight operations around the globe.

Some of these are 4 month rotations, most are 6, many are 12. It takes a toll, and the ability to fly commercial, double your salary, without getting shot at, is a huge attraction. With the exception of Docs and Naval Aviators, I can't think of other MOS/Jobs where you can do that.

Stripper....

I said AF, not army.

Yeah but the AF has only been doing it for 25 years, on and off. They have not adapted culturally or organizationally to that norm. When I entered the military a AF deployment typically lasted no longer than the fuel onboard. Worst case maybe a year in RoK.

The Navy has been doing it for centuries. Manning and personnel rotation is adapted accordingly.

And I'm not trying to say AF peeps aren't DEPLOYING, of course they are. I'm saying that they have morale (and therefore retention) issues because they don't seem to be doing it right. The AF expects traditional career paths, and if an arbitrarily assigned deployment gets in the way of your career development or personal life, it seems that's on you to deal with. You hear stories all the time of folks being punished in rankings because they didn't do X,Y,Z... while they were deployed.

In the Navy you get professionally rewarded for deploying (combat or not), punished for avoiding deployment, and typically an opportunity for relatively light duty after the sea tour (but if you're fast track, better not take too much light duty).

Eh, that's because we keep EXPECTING it to end...someday. It's like the goal post that keeps getting moved. Or Lucy and Charlie Brown's football (that's more accurate).

What I like about the Navy, is it's all about Leadership at Sea. Nothing else matters. What a concept.
In the AF? It's all about PME/school, and oh, don't dick up anything while you're in command...

I have a friend who went back on active duty after retiring and it was a great deal. He was hired by Continental and was a first officer on the 737, junior, on reserve in Newark, and making squat the first couple of years. He went on extended military leave for a few years, got a big pay raise, didn't have to put up with being low man on the totem pole, added to his retirement, and came back to work for United, not junior, making big bucks plus a bigger retirement. Sometimes it takes a while for the grass to really be greener on the other side of the fence.

USAR alone is short about 800 WOs (TPUs). The Army has their own problems with pilot retention. People are leaving in droves because the BS creep has gotten unbearable.