Hawk 285

I think you misunderstood what they were asking. I was asked to provide a DD-214 at my interview as well, but it was because I separated from AD and was in the reserves at the time. They can't hire you, and you can't accept a job if you are active duty.

The violation of federal law comes in to play if they somehow deny you employment because of your being in the guard/reserves.

Right?

nwaf16dude

Brillo retired about two years ago. I don't know it for a fact, but I heard that Midas passed his total.

L'il J.Seinfeld

Might want to clarify. I was IOE complete and still on terminal leave/active duty due to 110 days of leave (special accrual and carryover due to ops tempo.

crewdawg

Last I heard, Midas had retired as well. F-16 dot net, still shows Brillo as the highest time viper driver.

MikeF16

I left the UAE last year and he was flying for them. A lot. I could've swore he hit 7k but maybe it was 6k. Funny story I heard was a 3k+ hour guy was fighting high aspect bfm as the training aid with him. In the debrief Midas asked him what his cuffs were on the engagement and the reply was something to the effect of 'I spotted you over 3000 hours'. This from a 3k hour guy. Unbelievable.

KC10 FATboy

Is the early retirement option available to USAF Reservists?

FlyFastLiveSlow

Officers, enlisted members offered early retirement

Chased links to the elgibility chart and no 11 or 12 AFSC's for any year group.

Elvis90

That's right - I misspoke - Delta required a DD 214 from me, which in my case as someone with over 20 years of active duty translated into "retirement" in my case. I did not have the DD 214, but I did prove to them that I had applied for retirement, and that was sufficient.

KC10 FATboy

Both of these quotes are very good points.

After thinking about your question and putting myself in your shoes, I'm not sure of the decision I'd make -- and I've been in the airline business for 5 years now.

Seniority is everything and one number can make huge differences. In my case, one number would have meant going to a domicile of first choice versus getting stuck in NYC for two years.

However, $3000/year is a lot of money and can help pad the first couple of years on the lower paying scales or if invested significantly pad retirement. I assume you're around 40ish years old. If you invested that $3000/year, by the time you hit 80, you would have nearly $1,000,000. Or, look at it this way. Would you pay $3000 a year (or $1,000,000 over 40 years) to help ensure (no guarantee) getting better pay, schedules, domiciles? You could also gift that money to your kids, put it into a Roth, and they'd retire as multi-millionaires.

Of course, all of these scenarios are hypothetical and you won't know the answer until after you retire.

I'd like to go back to L'il J.Seinfeld's comment. I can't stress this enough, do not be that guy who thinks he is entitled to something because of his military service, or because you've held certain jobs in the military etc.etc.. I've seen a lot of guys make this mistake. I witnessed one guy in the holding room before our interview, bragging to everyone that the interview was just a formality and he was sure that we'd be hired (he was a high flight time heavy driver (EP/IP) with a very good network contacts). He was not hired.

Your timing is good if you stay or go. If you have strong internal contacts that are confident they can get you to an interview during the next hiring wave at your #1 or #2 company, I'd say do it. If not, I'd keep the $3000 and add to my flying hours.

HuggyU2

Based on the military new-hires that United is putting through training right now, I wouldn't agree with that statement 100%. It seems they are hiring a lot of former commanders, at the exclusion of younger ex-military pilots.