Now all you need are some of the glow belts wrapped around the hescoe barriers in the background of the poster.

 

In my experience around the same time frame, there were some guys sitting on the fence who decided to stay in part because of the bonus.

I think there may be more of those now because of a shift in perception regarding an airline career. There is no longer even an illusion of a good defined benefit retirement plan with most airlines. And, folks have seen that if the economy hiccups even a slight bit, many airlines begin furloughing almost immediately.

No bonus will keep every pilot in the AF, but a bonus will keep enough in to make it a wise thing to do. The AF simply cannot afford to hemorrhage all the 9-12 year guys. IMO.

 

We definitely had different experiences there - but I can only speak of the guys that I knew personally. I have no idea of any stats one way or the other.

I agree with this 100%. The timeframe I was talking about was also the time that some study (commissioned by whom I don't remember - probably AirInc ) said that it was still financially feasible to get out of the military all the ay up to 18 YEARS, because that 2 year's of increased seniority and pay would more than make up for the lost retirement over the career at the Legacy. I've fairly certain that no one would say that now Btw - I don't know anyone who waited until 18, but I do know a few who got out at 16 years and went for the brass ring.

USMCFLYR

 

I've heard of at least one punching out a few months shy of 20. Wife left him and he got raked over the coals in the divorce. He walked so that she wouldn't get any retirement, got hired with an airline, and she couldn't touch the money. What I heard anyway.


WRT to teh bouns, I was told by a reliable source from the Beaureu (I can't spell that) there was an informal study done at some point recently which polled a number of guys walking away from the bonus. They were asked if they raised the bonus to 250K or even 500K if they would stay, and the large majority said no. The thought process being that if that wasn't enough, then 125K isn't enough and they should get away with that too. Brilliant.

The reality is that, as was mentioned, guys have done two, three and even four cruises in their first tour, only to go on what should be a "rest and get well" shore tour, only two still be doing 60 hour work weeks and mulitple trips from home. You can put a price on that, but the gov't isn't going to want to pay it.

Like crewdawg said, the stars are going to align for a mass exodus and the military is going to be hearing crickets wondering where everyone went. Should be a prime time for guys that want to go career and stay in as well.

 

One thing I missed WRT retirement...even it, may not be safe in todays cash strapped environment. Now, I think it's highly unlikely that it would ever happen, but who knows. If this happens, our military will be gutted of all of our top notch people. What's worse is that if does pass, and you have less than 15 years of service, you are screwed. Oh ya, that whole pension at 20....we were just kidding!

They already tried to take retirees free healthcare a while back. Thanks to Col Bud Day, we still have that benefit!

Second task force seeks to cut retired pay - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

 

Or there's 2006 (I think?):

Offer ~$100k to stay in (ACIP)
Offer ~$100k to get out early (VSP)

Hey! Free money for everyone!
This from your USAF Personnel/Rocket Surgery/Retainment office.

Can you guess which group got more takers?

 

I had a friend take the max VSP--he was right at 12 years. Think it was $170k. So they paid him 20k more to get out than they'd pay him to stay in.

 

What is interesting to note is that both flight pay (monthly) and bonus pay (annual) has not changed since at least the early 90's. topping at 840/mo. and 25K/year. Obviously the ways in which the 25k/yr has been offered has gone through various iterations, the most lucrative were to 20 and 25 YAS, 50 percent up front (to a certain limit). Made more sense when the UPT commitment was 8 years. I took the to-20-yrs, and to be honest kind of regreted it later on, but as I come close to retirement am again relatively pleased to be reaching the finish line with a retirement, but personally, with a little 20-20 hindsight, I wouldn't recommend that anyone sign away 10 yrs with the stroke of a pen.

 

If they had said I had to give them 20 years to go to pilot training, I would have still done it.