Quote:
Originally Posted by EMKFlyer
Hello, I think I need some professional advice. I am currently a Major O-4 at my 20 year point (prior Army Warrant Officer.) I am now getting ready to pin on LTC O-5, however I was just offered a pretty good civilian flying job. The issue I am working is that, I still enjoy the Air Force, however next year I am being told that I will definitely go to a "Desk Job" for the next 4 years. So I have a couple of questions here:
1. If I go sit the desk job, will I have any chance of getting a flying/airline job after 4 years sitting behind a desk? (I currently have about 5500 hours C-17 and helicopter time, ATP, yada yada yada)
2. If I did stay on with the Air Force, is there anyway of maintaining any currency so I can show some recency of flying?
3. or would it be best to take the civilian flying job I was offered and stay on the flightdeck?
Thanks for any insights anyone may have here.
Having retired from active duty a few years ago, I walked through your decision almost exactly, twice. Could have retired in 2002 with 23 years, but stayed until 2007. For historical perspective, I had to make my decision in June of 2001 (that ought to set the reference) I decided to stay, mainly because I was still having fun and I expected to keep flying.
Every person I respected in the service, almost without exception, told me the same thing, "when it is time to go, you'll know." They were right. When it was time to go, I knew. When the time came, I retired and fell into a good flying job, worked out for me, but your milage may vary. Stability is a big variable out in the big cold cruel world, and I was on active duty long enough to become "instituionalized" as Red would say, but I got lucky.
Also, run the numbers, it is pretty straight forward to calculate what the difference in your retirement will be in any given retirement month going forward. As far as my retirement check is concerned, those last few years were
very significant. Look at O-4 @ 20 through O-5 @ 26 with assumptions for COLA raises for the next 5 years, let's say 2.5%/yr. The difference will astound you. The retired pay scale between 20-30 years is not linear, it is an exponential curve. Money is not everything, but it does factor in. You must make an informed decision. You can PM me for details.
Fly Safe, Thank you for your service! See you round the campus...
SD