Congratulations on making it and thank you for your service.

Congrats brother, and TYFYS! I'll be joining you shortly if my next reserve billet isn't at least in my time zone. One of my ex-squadron mates who is retired specifically bids MCO layovers for every Nov 11th so he can get his free bloomin' onion at the airport Outback there - can't wait until that's the highlight of my retiree life! :D

Thanks!
I will miss the People.

Thanks! I will have to add this to my repertoire... My airline life centers on my gastronomical and (and if I get a long enough overnight) local brew tour of the US. Free food is even better!

I can't wait until the pronoun people echelons above reality produce the retirement paperwork and their view of my status matches my view of the world.

First part, fact! The Blackhawk minimums are 8 hours a month. But be a technical and tactical expert and highly skilled aviator - just make sure all of your additional duties come first.

Second part, CSM or MAJ Butthurt/Good Idea Fairy (or whoever the f came up with it) got upset that pilots didn't look like everyone else with their flight suits, so we got the A2CU so we can look like everyone else yet have a functional flight suit. However... during any big formations we couldn't wear our A2CUs because they still look different from normal ACUs. Well what was the whole point of going to the A2CU from the one piece flight suit if we still couldn't wear them? Good Idea Fairy struck again.

I know you're an adult (20s, 30s, 40s with many years of adulting) and an officer, but if you want to go somewhere on your own time you need to put in for a pass. Go see the kid straight out of college to get approval for your pass to have a life outside of the Army.

By the way, did you have someone do a personal vehicle inspection for you? I know they're not a qualified mechanic, but they still need to sign this paper saying your vehicle - which you know and they don't - is safe for you to travel in.

The Army went to a 10 year commitment after flight school??

Checks. I know one of the two. He got the commitment and the program dissolved. It took lots of work on his part to explain to AFPC that he was in fact in a different boat than other people, but he got an extended PCS and a follow on to a cockpit. Hopefully he will be as fortunate later on when they try to give him a staff deployment...

It’s very unforgiving of folks who don’t know how to wear clothes, that’s for sure.

Anyways, I looked at my time in the Army as a service I was doing not a career. I joined to learn to fly and go to war, then move on with my life.

I enjoyed most of my time in the Army but I’m not sure any amount of money would have kept me around.

During COVID, with zero attrition, they were only able to decrease the shortage by 300 pilots? How long have the Majors been hiring? 6 Months? It takes time to leave the military, even without a service commitment. With AA, DAL, and UAL each hiring 200+ a month, I'm betting there are tons of guys who are "still on the books" with the AF even though they're out the door. The AF only produces 1200 pilots a year, or roughly 2 months of legacy hiring numbers. If they really don't see these numbers as a Master Warning, they're dangerously out of touch. They might be on glideslope, but their descent rate is about to be 2000 fpm.

Solid point. Too bad they don't let this be a good thing to reset things. We all know staffs at all levels became incredibly bloated during the GWOT years. Get the 11Xs out of them, back to squadrons and flying again. Or actually follow through on guys/gals requests. I know of zero people who have received a single assignment they requested. Guys who are O3s or O4s who are ready to punch when the staff crap shows up may reconsider if they know they'll PCS to another flying tour. But then again, big blue will say one thing, do another, and why wouldn't anyone rather be at AA/UA/DAL?