Interesting that the Navy reserve is difficult to get into where the Air Guard/Reserve is loosing guys at a high clip and can't fill the spots fast enough.

What I meant was that it's not just your last fitrep that can get taken down a notch for expressing a desire to leave the military... you can suffer for multiple fitrep cycles before that depending on how early you express that desire.

Also, those O4 results did do quite a number to the JO community which you may not recognize, being much senior to those JOs and whatnot. While I agree that QOL issues are a big driver of the looming pilot retention problem in the Navy, I know a lot of guys who pretty much gave up on the Navy when the results of those boards came out. Why take the hard job, when you're probably going to get fired anyway.

And that brings me to the point of my first post. There are a lot of JOs taking themselves out of the running for promotion to O4 either because they made it known they were getting out, thereby bringing their fitreps down... or by taking the easier jobs or the jobs that set them up for the civilian world. If you don't think that that brings down the overall quality of the group that does get promoted, then I don't know what to tell you.

Here, here. Get out while you can. Life is incredibly good on the outside.

The Navy's been slowly letting Reserve units with hardware wither and die to the point where there aren't a lot of flying gigs left. Combine that with people wanting to get out and do airlines plus flying (Navy) reserves, and the spots are fairly competitive. As a Navy guy, I do feel an apprehension to jumping services just out of familiarity. Is that logical? No, not really.

First off, Roll Tide. I can only speak to the Army side of things and the writing is definitely on the wall. I expect it to happen officially around 2018.

Problem for you is, I don't see it happening for your airframe. Currently the AH-64 is under strength by greater than the 60 and 47 combined AND times 2. Seriously. Everyone else is sitting pretty right now and I'd be surprised if you guys got the offer.

I believe it IS logical. As someone who helped start probably one of the most robust Inter-Service Transfer programs in military flying, I dealt with a lot Navy, Marine, and USCG pilots that made the jump.

There is a great deal of new material/culture/terminology/regulations/etc... to learn.

where there's a will there's a way right?

The main and obvious one is, more flying spots in the AF side of the ARC.... oh yeah and that other little thing: no individual invol mob. Check. Mate.

ANG and AFR are looking for current and qualified guys in the specific airframe that they're flying. Any non-current guys from staff or people from other airframes are not being considered for flying jobs. If they're "short" on pilots it's self-induced.

It's kind of like starving to death because you're too lazy to get up and go to the fridge.

True. The unwillingness to re-tread is especially acute in the fighter communities. AF has always been ethnocentric like that. Oh well, let them eat cake then.

Not really. TX-1s barely exist. TX-2/3/4s are available, but first-come/first-served. B-courses are all but impossible for rated retreads (bomber or heavy to fighter). Finally, emailing a resume to the squadron commander isn't enough to get hired. Most applicants never show up to hang out with/meet the squadron (rush).

Generally, units hire "good dudes," regardless of background or currency. The only real "walls" are needing a B-course or TX-1 and rank. Don't expect to retread if you're a senior major or a lieutenant colonel.