571 pilots sign up for 5 more years, $125,000

571 pilots sign up for 5 more years, $125,000
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 8, 2007 22:28:55 EST

A $25,000 annual bonus looks pretty good.

Slightly more than two-thirds of pilots eligible to sign up in fiscal 2007 cashed in and agreed to stay in the Air Force another five years, according to an Air Force report.

By the end of fiscal 2012, each pilot will have pocketed an extra $125,000.

Sept. 30 was the last day pilots reaching the end of their initial eight-year service commitment could request the bonus. Under current rules, pilots who did not take the bonus during their first year of eligibility cannot request the money in 2008 or later years.

The Air Force had predicted about 50 percent of the 853 eligible pilots, mostly senior captains and new majors, would take the bonus. Instead, 66.9 percent of the pilots — 571 officers to be exact — agreed to stay for five more years.

The pilots with the highest take rate were bomber aviators, with 75.8 agreeing to the bonus.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_pilot_bonus_071108w/

Now we have to bribe actual soldiers with mercenary money?

These are officers, so they're not affected by any stop loss policies, but I'll bet most stayed on because their job prospects in the civilian world aren't that good.

Most airlines are not doing well enough to hire pilots, so where does a trained pilot go to find a job?

But, for the most part these pilots are in safe jobs, and think of the benefits!!!;)

......Now if the the CEO's of major U.S airlines would grasp this concept the sky would be a friendlier happier place to be...the airlines are a hostile place to work these days and is deteriorating rapidly...no one is happy except those at SWA and Jet Blue...they know how to treat the employee.