Sliceback

First year, with bonuses, is $50-60K. Add in retirement pay, and no health care costs, and it's an easier pill to swallow.

FlewNavy

Pretty sure you can't collect a regular component retirement check AND be in the guard. I could be wrong. No need to go guard really...just get the retirement check and work the regional.

Hacker15e

Regional is definitely the answer.

You will get most of what you need to move on to the majors in 12-18 months.

Jet Jockey 00

If you need a rec at Piedmont/PHL let me know. A mil bud of mine did 20 years then a regional gig for a year and got hired at UPS. Piedmont will be around 60k with the bonus.

TSRAGR

At a minimum, as everyone has stated, apply to the regional of your choice. Chances they'll call in days.

crewdawg

Having balanced the regional/ANG career, I would say the sanity will still be lost, if he goes to the ANG. The ANG is great but not what it once was...right now, my 20 can't get here fast enough.

I would take the retirement check/healthcare and go to the regionals. We had 2 retired mil guys in my class that took this route. One spent about 10 months on the line and the other was hired within a month of finishing training, at their respective regionals. Also, with many offering bonuses + 1st year pay + mil pension isn't a bad income.

As other have said, go to the regional that doesn't require a commute. Living in base is almost like having an entirely different job. I would keep this in mind when applying to the majors as well. Sure apply everywhere, but if you have the opportunity to live in base, that would be my first choice.

Tester130

I'm not going to say anything that hasn't been said. If you can retire, then do it and walk away from the military. The ANG will not buy you much of anything to help you reach your goal that flying for a regional can't do better.

The ISR gigs are not a bad route for building time quickly, but research those heavily before signing on. One of the great things about being out of the military is not being gone for long stints of time. With the ISRs you will be doing deployments again. The regionals have pretty long training periods you will be away from home initially and some trips are as long as 6 days (worst I've heard of, most are 4 or less), but that still beats being gone for a month at a time if you have little ones.

As far as which airline to choose, it really comes down to what is a priority to you and which ones offer that priority the best. Most folks will list base location, quality of life, and 1st year pay near the time of their list. Fast upgrade, flow to a major, and sometimes what they fly can be considerations as well. Decide what factors are important to you and then figure out what airline offers them the best.

Being able to drive to work is huge, especially if you are junior sitting reserve. Living within two hours of your base sitting at home getting paid is great vs having to commute to another city to sit in a crash pad or kill time someplace else. The commutes also can eat into your time off depending on how easy or hard it is. Having to commute in the day before a trip starts really kills your down time.

All the best in what ever you end up deciding.

Grumble

This, 100 times

Out West

Many thanks, folks - the info and effort to respond is much appreciated. The regional aspect/option just surfaced recently but is quickly gaining momentum. There is one wildcard with the ANG; but I doubt it changes anyone's advice!

The ANG (depending on the state) seems to be in a near panic to avoid the active duty's 11F issues. I've been extended an offer for a letter of indispensability - meaning, retire and start drawing as normal, then right back as a part timer as able. Green bag flying? Normal DSG pay. No green bag that day? Draw retirement. Still promote, can still hold any temp full time status, pension is recalculated to include "counter" days of service once you retire....again?

Regardless, I can't find any reason not to push the retire button. 22 years is enough, and from here forward its just delaying my next/last job. At least in my opinion.

I'm not super keen on the ISR gig; that place has seen enough of me. Sure, I may be guessing wrong - but I'd rather take my lumps for a bit in the regional world to get hours than get back into rotations back to the armpit of the world. (Then again - if I didn't get hired, I'm not saying never.)

Hope I'm not missing any points of posts that were made. Again, it's all very much appreciated. Questions on the regional act:
- Reading APC would lead one to believe that being hooked to a car battery is a better option than any regional. (Of course, according to the same forum - AA might be worse and DAL/UA/FedEx are not far behind.) Is there a general consensus of which regional to look at? (Pretty presumptuous to assume I get to pick, I know.)
- Bonus got mentioned once or twice. Hard to imagine a guy who (best case) walks out after a few months to a major getting a bonus? I don't think I can count on that one if things go well.

I won't even start yet with which major to think - mostly because I mostly hear "pick your domicile and go for it." The wife and I make a different decision al,oust daily on where we'd like to live. We love too many different places!

Yeah....we're military brainwashed. Not living under the assumption we're moving in 3 years anyway makes all of these decisions pretty heavy. But I'm looking forward to it, best believe...

Brillo

I hear you about this. I'm a little over a year out from retirement, and I grew up as a military brat. Moving to a new place in a couple of years has been my entire life. Even though deep down I know I want to settle down, this is freaking me the hell out. The idea that we're going to pick a place and plan to stay there and...that's it. That scares the crap out of me (but seems perfectly normal to my wife).