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Reserve Component Commitments

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Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Posts
18
Just a word of advice from a dude who's been there. If you are looking for a job in commercial aviation and also have a military Reserve (or Guard) commitment, DO NOT put it on your resume or discuss it with your interviewer. Provide them your DD214, and that's all! The Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) prohibits any type of discrimination against you for serving in the Guard or Reserve; however, this law really only helps you once you've been hired. The HR folks at these carriers are very hip about the law and very discrete about the way in which they discriminate. I don't care if you're a flag officer or the commander of a flying unit, they won't want you because 1) you'll have monthly drill commitments as well as Additional Flight Training Periods (AFTPs) and 2) you stand a good chance of being mobilized and deployed (15 months if your Army, 6 months for Navy/Marines, an afternoon for the Air Force). It seems very unscrupulous to do this type of thing to those who serve, but money and the bottom line are EVERYTHING to these air carrier types. There are reservists and Guardsmen who do get hired, but many more don't, especially these days.

Feel free to PM me if you think you've experienced this. I like to keep track of this type of practice.
 
They don't have a problem with mil reserves at Alaska, JBLU or SWA. At Alaska, despite management's many shortcomings, they treat mil reserves well. I hear SWA and JetBlue are pretty good to their mil reserves also.

Just a word of advice from a dude who's been there. If you are looking for a job in commercial aviation and also have a military Reserve (or Guard) commitment, DO NOT put it on your resume or discuss it with your interviewer. Provide them your DD214, and that's all! The Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) prohibits any type of discrimination against you for serving in the Guard or Reserve; however, this law really only helps you once you've been hired. The HR folks at these carriers are very hip about the law and very discrete about the way in which they discriminate. I don't care if you're a flag officer or the commander of a flying unit, they won't want you because 1) you'll have monthly drill commitments as well as Additional Flight Training Periods (AFTPs) and 2) you stand a good chance of being mobilized and deployed (15 months if your Army, 6 months for Navy/Marines, an afternoon for the Air Force). It seems very unscrupulous to do this type of thing to those who serve, but money and the bottom line are EVERYTHING to these air carrier types. There are reservists and Guardsmen who do get hired, but many more don't, especially these days.

Feel free to PM me if you think you've experienced this. I like to keep track of this type of practice.
 
No problems here...my company rocks when it comes to mil folks.

Maybe it is just you? You seem like a real winner...:cool:
 
I think there is less of that going on at the majors now than in the past because of the current public attitudes toward veterans and the heat put on by ESGR.

However, I can tell you pre-war, this pracice was rampant at the majors, but not so much at the regionals because of their need to fill seats pre-2001. However, once hired, I know the regionals tried to violate every law there is on the books to violate Reservists and Guardsmen's rights to keep them from taking mil leave. Post Gulf War, I won a judgement against a Delta Connection carrier because they violated my right. This was the day of paper checks, and it gave me great satisfaction when the DO handed me a paper check for my back pay.

Here's what happened: I bid specific days off to do my drills without having to take mil leave. The first of my days off Crew Sched junior manned me to fly a trip. They called me at the flight facility, but I told them I bid those days off to drill. Crew Sched deducted those days from my pay, which is illegal, and the rest is history. ESGR helped me, because ALPA had no clue at that time.

I unsucessfully interviewed at a big blue major about ten years ago. All of the technical questions went well. Personality check by the HR person seemed OK, but the military question came up. The two twenty-something looking pilots in the interview asked me why I would still be in the Reserve after 20 years? Did I feel insecure being away from the military by giving it up to fly with XXX (illegal question, by-the-way, but how does one prove it was asked)? And then this statement: Well, we see military guys are OK, but they sometimes have a hard time doing things our way.

I thought that I addressed each question and the final statement with a satifactory response, but you can't tell me there wasn't an anti-military aura in that room, on that particular day. By the way, there were two AF astronaut candidate types who interviewed right after me. None of the three of us were hired in that round of interviews.

No sour grapes on my part. I'm happy. I am just testifying that it did happen ten years ago. My career went on to be well inspite of the one rejection. My current employer is very military friendly at this time, but I didn't work there pre war, so I can't address that question.
 
for the record..the Guard does not have a service commitment...I found this out the hard way but in fact there is no regulation in the Guard for a service commitment.
 
RedDog,

There is no Guard Regulation for service obligation. It is a DoD regulation and DoD Directive. If you need to know it, I happen to work at Human Resources Command.
 
Well I got out after 2 years of flying after doing research and found there was no regulation. They told me I had a commitment and I said...prove it...they could not...I did have a Lt.Col in the unit who had my back during it because he knew I was right...was not the most popular guy in the unit during that time...but I got what I wanted

I got back in after a 1 1/2 of not flying but that was for job security reasons
 

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