Interesting to hear the world of an ART. The job posted on Usa Jobs said it topped out at $150k. Not sure if that was with guard pay in addition to it.

The only ART I talked to said that he worked his 4 10's and one weekend a month only. He would max the days that he could do his mil service that the feds gave him. He said that he left money on the table but was still making enough money. Is that uncommon for ART's to do?

I don't understand the retirement system. Even googling it didn't make sense. The new guys are putting in 4.4 percent and getting 1 percent out but not exactly.

Has any ejection seat person come close to 57? There has to be at least one.

Not sure about that $150k. I'm a GS-13 step 3 and I make $103.5k. Each step increase is about $2,500 gross pay so a step 10 tops out around $122k right now I believe. I don't even think a GS-15 tops out at $150k, much less a 13 or 14.

Most of us try not to leave money on the table so you'll usually find us killing ourselves at the end of the FY trying to burn our pay days. We have historically and comically called this "RUTA-paloosa".

Retirement is about 1% per year of service. If you do 25 years as an ART and make $125k when you retire, you get 25% of that per month when you leave. Although, I don't think they include locality adjustment into that. The 4.4% is basically us paying into our pension. So if you figure it out, over 25 years, 4.4% each year plus interest earned is probably something north of $200,000, which means if your retirment pay is $25,000 per year, you just payed 8 years worth of retirement (68 years old). I'm sure the GVT is banking on you being dead shortly there after.

Did the whole ANG loose the alert role? I thought some fighter units had it still.

Some fighter units still have it. The tankers lost it though to AD. They'd much rather we spent our time in the desert...

Haha, how does alert work? Do you have to be sitting in a hanger ready to go or you at home? Does it pay more or just another man day?

Fighter guys sit in the alert shack with their g-suits on.

Rookies. I debrief with mine on.

Tell you what they need to bring back on alert: SAC Trucker hats. Just so I could go trolling for Chiefs at the BX telling me I'm out of regs...again.

FUBIJAR baby!

Only the SNAPs.
If you're slightly overweight, drink a fair amount, and avoid long cardio sessions, your blood pressure is plenty high... no need for a G-suit.

I'll never forget when I suggested we get rid of the rule for mandatory wear of the G-suit in ACC T-38s. The F-15 guy that "owned" the regulation just about lost his mind.

Needless to say... all ACC pilots still need the G-suit if more than 2 G's is planned on the sortie.
However... nothing says I have to zip the comfort zippers.

T-37, fastest g-onset jet ever... 1 to 6.67Gs in a blink of an eye; watch Stan do the funky chicken! G-suits would have been nice in that jet! In T-38s, not really required by T-37 standards.

Huggy, did you fly the U-2 all of your flying career?

Don't know how the fighter world does it, but we preflight and leave a jet in a "ready to go" state if we have to respond. There is a required response time, which usually means we're on base. Most units that have an alert mission have a temporary living facility for the aircrew on alert. Every day on alert was one active duty day, so if you could pull 3 or 4 days of alert per month, it added up to quite a nice somethin somethin at the end of the year, not to mention an extra 50+ retirement points per year. It was a good deal, but like all good deals... sooner or later, they come to an end.