Jesse

??? Really? Redux was about voluntarily saying you'd take cash up front ($20k? don't remember exactly) for a reduction to 40% vs 50% of base pay at 20 years. I don't recall anyone getting out as a result of that option being offered.

Cargo Man

That was after the problem to "fix" it.

golfandfly

Random thoughts:

1. Pilot retention depends on airline hiring. Bonuses or not, if the hiring is going great guns, retention stinks. People may be a little more wary of the airline profession due to pay cuts, furloughs, etc, but we have short memories. Also, when facing future career opportunities in the military (countless Middle East deployment, time away from family, and that remote assignment that will boost that career), it's easy to see folks leaving if they they think they can get a decent job.

2. If they significantly mess with the retirement, retention will fall off the cliff. I think they can pull off a 40% plan or something to that nature with fewer departures, if they change the age that you get your pension to 55 or higher, they'll lose folks right and left. Collecting a retirement check after 20 years just offsets what you have to earn to survive. Very few of us can live well off of strictly a military pension.

3. I took this from one of the links provided earlier: " Military and civilian pensions are both out of line with pension benefits available to the average worker in the private sector, and in some cases, out of line with each other across different categories of federal employment."

I am sort of offended by this statement. The civilian worker isn't obligated to follow orders or face punishment (including jail time), deploy to war zones and possible get seriously injured or killed, miss over half of their life away from their wife and kids. The military is difficult these days. We are in a constant war, we've been at it hard for almost 10 years (and well before if you go back to desert shield and the multiple deployments that were required then). Personnel are constantly gone these days, and they aren't deployed to garden spots. We don't have enough people so we use the Guard and Reserves in ways that weren't really used before.

4. I always laugh when I hear about the pilot only track. They were supposed to have considered it years ago. Not sure if I would want to do that either, you'd be the whipping boy for every trip/deployment that comes up.

Atlas Shrugged

I highly recommend reading Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. It is a classic that delineates the complexities of this issue profoundly....

I am rapidly arriving at the point of becoming one of the old guys. I have seen so many changes in the 20+ years that I have served. I will retire soon, and never look back.....

I fear that this country is in for some rough times ahead.....

limelight

So what's the difference? The other track seems to demand that you spend a tour being a group or wing exec and working 12-14 hours a day 6 days a week. Pretty easy decision for me.

golfandfly

The easy decision is to get out....

MD10PLT

I get a kick out of this "pilot only track". It always seems the guys who are screaming for it the most, are the ones who scream the loudest that we have such poor support and incompetence in the staff.

FANS cripple

^ staff guy

CWGrizwald

A couple of thoughts here:

Don't forget to consider the value of the 20 year retirement to the NCOs. It's one thing for a college graduate (probably with a masters) and a highly technical skill to bail out after 10 years. But what is the chief motivator for a high school graduate to stay for 20, at which point is making the same as a 3 year LT? Income and medical security for the rest of his life at the age of 38. Start messing with that and watch what happens....

What about guard/reserve manning? With no pilots able to separate for the last two years how are those units doing with mid level manning? If they are short, combine that with the "rumored" airline situation in 2012, and there is a perceived threat to the retirement system... just wondering...

Bottom line is that the 20 year retirement system is a damn good deal. It saved my bacon when I lost my civilian flying job. However there is no question in my mind that I earned it. That being said, there already have been attacks on the benefits. Although there is a "free" version of TRICARE, to get the most out of it you have to pay. Dental care is hugely expensive and it seems to me, with a few exceptions, there are very few good deals left at the commissary and BX. If retirement keeps getting whiting away...

And finally, the flying only career track... as a retiree recall pilot it's working for me. I was recalled with the understanding that I wouldn't be eligible for promotion and I wouldn't be sent remote. So for three years I get to be a line IP in the salt mines of UPT. My flight CC is a second assignment Capt and my assistant Flt CC is a 1LT FAIP. I'm having a blast! You would not believe the peace of mind that comes with doing something you love to do without worry about getting a masters, making sure I get stratified on my evals (not sure I will even get an OPR), or being the Christmas party projo. So it would seem the AF is also benefiting, they have a happy experienced IP with over 5000 hours in 6 different airplanes who gets to spend all his time teaching students...what a concept...

Elvis90

Griswald, great observation about NCOs and retirement -- the AF can't afford to lose them.