Retirement as an AirForce pilot?

20

Everyone must do at least 20 years to retire, except for medical retirements or TERA (both of which are uncommon).

The ability to fly has nothing to do with anything. I worked with a guy that became unable to fly, was crosstrained into another AFSC, and did a full careers of 20+ years to retire as a colonel.

The more responsibility and rank you get, the less you fly. If you somehow make general, at best, you might get the bare minimum stick time to maintain your rating. A lot of them don't even fly that much.

ALL US Military personnel MUST complete a MINIMUM of 20 years on active duty before they are eligible for retirement. The only exception to this would be if they were injured or wounded on active duty and forced to retire due to medical conditions.

MOST US Military pilots leave the service after 10-15 years, and those who stay beyond that time are promoted into administrative or management positions where flying is NOT their primary job.

Retirement is 20 years. on rare occasions a reduced benefit 15 Year retirement is offered but not too many will take advantage of it since you end up losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.

your health is irrelevant. by the time you get to a certain rank, you will be flying a desk, period. usually you cannot bank on more than 10 -12 years of actual flight time.

Unlike an average worker who's retirement pay at age (62-69) is based on the Average earnings over a lifetime The Military retirement is based on top pay for 36 months. Twenty Years minimum service.

So best 36 months pay Less 1% for each year short of 30 years service.

You need to know what the rank and earnings were at time of retirement.

This varies greatly due to ranks attained, time in grade, service conditions and assignment's bonus if any.

http://militarypay.defense.gov/Pay/Retirement.aspx

20 yrs to retire.

Even with perfect health you wouldn't be flying much at all beyond that. There aren't many jobs where they need Generals in airplanes.