What's the upside to staying in? I've watched my purchasing power erode, prodigiously, over the last 4 years. For instance, BAH for Oahu got cut two years in a row. The idea of phasing in 5% housing costs over 5 years? Laughable when they chop 5%....two years straight. Rents sure didn't decrease after they did that, just the quality of housing one could afford.
My responsibilities increase, but the pay does not go up in a commensurate manner. At this point, they need something more than the red white and blue to keep me in. The latest ACIP/AVIP shenanigans were a big fuck you to anyone on the fence, and I hope the brass gets the raw deal they deserve when the full ramifications of the pilot retention crisis come home to roost.
The retirement? If you think the government won't renege on its obligations to service members in the next 20 years, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona I can sell you. The idea that more costs won't be transferred to the member and that you have any kind of stability an a defined benefit backed by the government is retarded. Uncle Sugar will slowly chip away at your 'guaranteed' retirement until you're left holding your dick and a quarter of what you thought you were going to get.
I'll take the certainty of retirements over the next 15 years, getting hired early in the wave, profitability due to consolidation, and the ability to earn enough to be self-insured over continuing to trust the good intentions of our elected officials to take care of me in exchange for 9 more years of turd sandwich good deals and deployments to shitholes so we can shwack douchebags who haven't mastered the use of toilet paper.
