Heh guns I feel for ya. It's the same all along the entire instructor corps, forcewide.
We drive our UPT students pretty hard, typically kicking them out the door exactly 12 hours before they have to be back in the morning, but of course the instructor pilots have to be in before the studs and usually leave after the studs are gone. We try to split the jobs so we can make our 12 hour crew rest and duty day rules, but if a guy isn't flying the next day then he's usually the poor slob who sticks around late fixing the schedule, prepping for exams, reviewing/inspecting gradebooks, etc.
Being an instructor is rewarding and there are no deployments except for occasional away weekends and field exercises, but I haven't ever met a military instructor in any career field who says it's easy.
At least I only have to really worry about students trying to kill ME... UPT studs are usually too focused on training to get into much trouble on their own so having to bail them out of jail is pretty rare. Big difference from the guys across the base who have to ride herd on the tech school kids. Sometimes it seems like their real job is to get drunk, go to jail, have sex in the dorms, spend their entire salary on a car they can't afford, and get married/pregnant before they even get to their first assignment. The tech school part is just a distraction for some of these guys.
I'm sure you'll show them the true path when you get your hat... Lots of those kids have never seen anything they can really respect so you've got your work cut out for you.
