TBoneF15

I haven't done it, but here are some possible reasons dudes might drop long term mil leave...

- early years pay sucks in the airlines. If I didn't do the reserve gig as well, I would be making roughly 45% of what I made on active duty, and I'm at one of the higher-paying-in-the-first-year airlines. Makes it rough to keep any semblance of the lifestyle you were living before getting out without wiping out your savings. Mil pays much better. If a dude finds a opportunity after he got out to go back and make some decent pay at a job he enjoys, all while progressing in pay/seniority at an airline, he might do that. Pay jumps up after year one in the airlines, but it will take a while at most places to get back to what you were making before you got out.

- reserve at the airlines sucks. I'm spamming this site because I'm sitting in my crash pad watching my phone not ring and I'm bored senseless. 5 years from now, I hope I would be off reserve and holding a line...i.e. better quality of life.

- hours don't mean anything once you're in an airline for progression. there is no merit based progression like in the military, so it won't hurt upgrades to capt (as far as I know). It's all seniority...which is still accruing while you are on mil leave. If your seniority number can hold a seat/aircraft when you get back, you can bid it.

- As for the technician side and USERRA, can't speak much to it or whether it's possible/legal. As a technician, you will be put on mil status a decent amount so you will still be able to accrue points towards reserve/guard retirement. Unless you quit the airline, you obviously won't ever get the full civil service retirement, but if you stick it out through 20 years of reserve/guard service, you'll be able to pick up that retirement (and health care benefits) at age 60. If you go back full time for a few years, it makes it that much less you have to work 2 jobs at the same time to get to that 20 year point for reserve retirement. Working 2 jobs sucks.

- job satisfaction...some dudes didn't have any in the military, but many really did. Sometimes it's tough to find the same kind of job satisfaction on the outside, in my opinion.

I think it's very poor form (although legal) to get hired by an airline with the prior INTENTION of dropping 5 years of mil leave right away or soon after hire. But things happen, opportunities arise, and we're at war. If a great opportunity drops in a dude's lap, I don't fault him for taking it.

rickair7777

It's true. The primary qualification for upgrade is longevity/seniority...you are not going to miss much if you skip the first 3-4 years of airline work.

scrapdog

Here's the bottom line - if you're an AGR or a Technician, you're a full timer. That means that your sole job is to be a full time soldier/airman/sailor in the unit with no outside job, i.e. you're also NOT an airline pilot.

As a part timer you're called a DSG (Drill Status Guardsman). That means you have a full time civilian job and you also have a part time job with the military. Realize the full time civilian job doens't have to be an airline pilot - you could be a janitor if you so chose - however most aviators in the military are also airline pilots because the work skill sets are obviously very transferable.

If you - as a part timer - decide to pick up orders to be on full time status in the military - you can do so at anytime and the airlines can not technically challenge that. Typically those orders are referred to as "man days" or "temp AGR" orders. Obviously there are many other valid types of orders, but those two terms come to mind.

For instance - Captain John Doe flies for airline X and he also flies F-16's as a part timer (purely hypothetical obviously). One day the squadron commander comes up to him and says "can you help me get ready for a deployment? I can give you 6 months of orders." This is one instance where he would be put on 6 months of man days and take 6 months of military leave to help the squadron spin up for war.

Here's another example. Captain John Doe needs to spend some time at home based on a number of reasons (say a family member is sick and needs some extra care). In his base, there are a number of staff jobs that require a captain or major and have a 2 years of solid orders that go with them. This is a perfect fit, the dude takes 2 years of orders and gets put on the staff job's manning doc and consequently is on mil leave for 2 years from the airlines.

These are very simplified examples. Again, there are hundreds of "types" of orders with varying lengths of service for part time guys. And on top of that - some orders are exempt from being under the USERRA 5 year rule and therefore don't count against your mil leave time from the airlines. Some pay per diem, some don't. Some give you a crashpad, some don't. The list goes on and on. Hope this helps.

beis77

that's good to know; thanks! It's nice knowing there are a lot of options out there.