I got out years ago, not because it
was a tough job, it was, but because everything along the way was made to be as painful as possible.

“No morale will be tolerated”

It's not the money. It's the enviorment. No one quits a job, they quit a boss or coworkers.. Especially nowadays.

In 1972 I left the Navy having completed by obligation. I was on Yankee Station at the time and I knew I didn’t want to spend any more of my young life on a flight deck. The Navy was a experience, some good, some bad, but I had seen what a Navy career (lifers) had to endure with the separation from family, and knew that was not my interpretation of a path for a stable family. I returned to university after my service and never regretted my choice. I respect the service of those that did choose a Naval Career, but the cost of their decision to remain in the Navy was often paid at a huge cost of their personal lives as I observed firsthand.

Pilot retention has always been a problem.  Airlines pay much more, but the services continue to try and push pilots up the management tracks and take them out of the cockpit.  Pilots want to fly.  Take a pilot out of the cockpit to do a OCS/OTS tour and they are going to leave.  I know, because that was why I left at 10 years.

Maybe your most valuable show ever.  Thanks!  Retired LT mustang.

It seems that poor admin is destroying our fabric from top to bottom. Devastating.

When the civilian economy looks grim, recruiting gets rosier.

The US leadership SUCKS at giving military members a reasonable ops to recovery tempo.

If you treat your people like poo don't expect them to stick around.

Burning up all our people and weapons systems is not signaling strength, it signals incompetence and lack of resource management skills.

If you want to do double what doctrine affords, then you need double the force, double the equipment, double the logistics, and double the infrastructure.

Don't make our courageous men and women in uniform sacrifice their training and well earned time with their family, in order to keep up a fast paced forever war, on the cheap.

First off I salute you mooch and rain. What you have explained here is actually kind of scary. I served as a radio operator in the Marine corps from '76 to and back then there was always the hurry up and wait situation but that's standard for grunt type situations. What you guys are describing is what can be major catastrophe for our armed forces as we know them. My question to you is is there anything that us old-timers as civilians can do to raise the awareness of what's happening? Hopefully some higher-ups had been watching your shows. I would think that they would be ashamed or embarrassed to know that they're in this positions and got their hands tied. We've got to find a way to come together and correct this. Again, thank you very much for all your time and effort in the information that you put out. Semper Fi, Orah!

In my 21 years most people left because the family was not happy. In my case, as my rank increased the quarters got smaller and the condition was worse.

The deployment pattern is just following the chaotic foreign policy of our administrations. Yes, there are unpredictable external events, but we are creating most of our own problems by not having clear priorities and consistency.

You can't stay 100% on 24-7. You have to stand down, even if it's 1-in-4 Cinderella liberty for a week in a port. You also can't uproot your dependents for back-to-back-to-back PCS moves every enlisted or commissioned cruise. Your family is not going to last under that kind of extended stress. And sooner rather than later, the bonuses quit mattering.

Some things never change….

I'm almost certain that while carrier deployments during Vietnam War were long, they had more port calls in the area than now.

You are absolutely correct about he quality of the people who remain for a career.  When I left active duty in 1995 as a Naval Aviator(O-3) the guys who remained for the most part were
not the ace of the base, but generally were those who loved pushing paper

It's not any better on the aircraft maintenance side either..despite not getting the bonuses like pilots.

12:23 "How do you retain people operating at such a high operations tempo?"

You don't.

Former MM1/SS. 1987 - 1997. I remember the changes after Gulf 1 very well. The sub force op tempo after the Cold War draw downs is precisely the reason I did not re-enlist. We were well over 50% at sea. And your late 20s/early 30s are vital years for a new family.  9 years, 9 months and 21 days was enough to give.

ETA: That said, I would seriously consider the opportunity to help teach the youngsters if one came along. I think I still remember how to startup an S6G engineroom.

Maybe people are tired of toxic people in higher positions. Crazy concept I know but here we are as always. All it takes is that one toxic leader to ruin it.

I was likely one of the first helo pilots to transition into the tactical community (A6's) in 1981. The airlines were hiring and  decimated the tacair community, principally due to optempo work/life balance issues.  There was no transition syllabus. No formal sim or flight pipeline. No nothing. I didn't count toward VT-4's PTR, consequently I was lowest pri for everything. It took 8 months.  Fortunately they gave me a "boat and a half" of FCLP's and I qualified my first CQ attempt (no T2's, I went straight to the A4). Fortunately I was a midterm LT, so I had a sqdn tour prior to my department head tour. To say that it was a mountain to climb would be an understatement. After completing the ad hoc program the Navy didn't even ask me how to improve the transition process, it was off to the RAG where I was 'that guy'.... While it was great for me, robbing Peter to pay Paul will not solve the retention issue; only shift it laterally.

SecNav Lehman attempted to think outside the box by establishing the ADO program for guys less interested in command, but the Navy's parochialism killed this innovative program as soon as he left. I've seen about 3 or 4 iterations of the retention crisis now, and we haven't really learned how to avoid this predictable trainwreck yet. Throwing money at the problem isn't the answer. Just about any tacair guy can be making $200/hr 3 years after bailing, and be home  as well. So don't even try to compete on a money basis. Attacking a problem with solutions which have failed in the past isn't a formula for success. Make it a job worth staying for.