From what I can gather from my buds who are on IA, you are doing something important. It's just dependant on what you think important is. Where my buds have problems is when you get thrown an M-16 and are told to go to it when you have been flying the ball for the past 5 years. What do you know about being a ground pounder. Granted, they train you, but man, to me it seems like those guys are being thrown to the wolves. Sorry for the threadjack, but more to the point, the reasons mentioned above are COMMON. The economy is slowly coming back and that means that more guys will be leaving to go to the private sector. It happens. Plus, with the Navy downsizing, DH tours are going to become harder and harder to get. All of the YG's that are post 9/11 will experience that problem. A lot of guys volunteered and now getting promoted will be a bit more difficult than before. Add to that, you have dudes who don't like the deployments, want more time with their families, hate being COMMO/ADP.....There are others who will stay in. Naval Aviation is not hurting. My YG actually had too many dudes. So, the way I look at it, this is just the normal process for dudes looking to reup or get out. As for the IA's, it looks that that is going to be the norm for a while. So, just suck it up as part of your job.