This response is for both A4sForever and Catmando....
Does this make me a scab, yes.
Do I care what you think, no.
I'll be blunt. You scab Coz personally stole my career - and many former Naval Aviators' careers - forever by scabbing. And you also helped perpetuate the likes of Lorenzo to continue on and later screw the pilots of Eastern, Frontier, Peoples Express, etc.
Sure, you did it for your wife and 4 children. I've heard all the excuses.
But what about the real Continental Pilots who suffered with their families, some also declaring bankruptcy, and even some suicides abetted by your selfish action? The difference is they maintained integrity, despite the difficult and long hardships. They stood tall, shoulder-to-shoulder. It is something the military teaches you. Duty. Honor. Stand with your buddy. You perhaps slept through those lessons.
Apparently you must not have been "on strike" very long, and certainly not "almost" a year as you claim. The strike benefits - paid for by contributions from fellow pilots of most all other airlines out of their personal paychecks - were upped to $2,000 a month, not the "1250 or 1350 a month" you say. Couldn't you live on 2k a month in 1983 dollars and maintain your integrity?
And if you couldn't live on $800 a month at Muse, why go there? Especially when strike benefits were nearly double? (Oh, never mind.... I forgot you were double dipping on the strike benefits paid for by other industry pilots... until that loophole stopped. Then you scabbed so you could become an instant captain instead of the junior F/O you really were. )
You may or may not have had a good reputation as a Naval Officer. Makes no difference. You know what they say about bridge builders - You may build a thousand great bridges, but cross one picket line and they don't call you a bridge builder - They call you a sucking scab forever!
You stole my job and many of my best friends and former Naval Aviators' (including combat veterans and TOPGUN instructors) jobs at CAL forever, by your selfishness. It is a bell never to be un-rung. I may have landed on my feet eventually, but many did not for years, while you flew their aircraft in a seat not yours. And for slave wages and uncle Frank, because it's all about you, isn't it?
I'll never forget. Just as I remember like yesterday how my wingmen performed under fire (and they performed most admirably, thank you), I also remember how my fellow pilots performed during the strike of '83. While I am not too surprised a large number of low-life civilians crossed the picket lines, I regret and really detest the limited number of former Naval Aviators that did! They knew better.
Sometimes there is a pattern in one's posts and profile. It raises flags. Especially when it's all about them, in detail, and they take positions not always coinciding with a normal background. It is similar to former posers here. And even if you weren't a scab, you would get no sympathy from me about your vaguely repeated medical problems, apparently fishing for some sympathy.
"The good thing to some pilots about this is that the number of pilots who were fired or resigned reduced the number of pilots furloughed and several pilots upgraded and got pay raises due to this."
There is no good thing about a pilot being fired, unless he was incompetent, dangerous, criminal, etc. And those are fortunately extremely rare. Seeing the bright side of these contended pilot terminations fits your scabby profile... gaining a flying job on someone elses misfortune!
Crawl back under your rock, scab.
