Not surprised you called on me. Be of no doubt Gents, this example of the crap that Airline crews have to deal with daily is not even slightly surprising; which leads me to another question.
Puma, you clearly spent some great time in the Air Force and flew some jets I would have loved to get my hands on. For your own reasons and I would never pry into those, you decided to join the Airline pilot ranks. Had you decided to remain in the Air Force, could you have retained a flying seat for your entire career? and retired comfortably in your senior years?
Good question, Busher.
My third tour in the Phantom was to be at an intermediate headquarters (Numbered Air Force) flying on the IG (Inspector General) as an F-4 pilot. About a month out from departure to this new assignment, I called my point of contact on the IG team to get the new guy gouge. We discussed all of that, and then he said that they (and the rest of the Air Force) had some manning reductions due to draw downs as the result of the new White House administration. As a result, my F-4 flying slot had been eliminated, and I wasn’t going to be on the IG team either. And I quote “but, don’t worry, you’re still coming to the staff. You just won’t be flying.” What a turd in the punch bowl that was.
There are days of boring description of what that assignment was like, not flying. So, had the IG team aspect worked, I’d most likely would have ended my career flying. My intention and promise from day one, was to give the Air Force and my country 20 years of volunteer service. With this staff “patooeee” job, my intention was to get out at 20 years and one second. A real world situation, the near Haiti invasion, altered those plans and prevented that from happened. Retirement was finally approved and happened at the 21 year point.
Then, it was on to a second 21 year career in the airlines.
