Okay....
Assuming that the original post isn't grossly misrepresenting anything (I'm not suggesting that - it's just a caveat) then I personally have a great deal of sympathy for a guy who has put his time in, gone repeatedly in harm's way, and is losing out simply because at one point he chose A instead of B.
Look at it this way - part way through your career you are asked to guess whether you will end up with several stars and a private jet, or end up with 10,000 hours in your log book. based on this guess you then stand to make out like a bandit, or lose hand over fist.
That's complete b*llocks - if you do the same job at the same rank then you should get the same pay and benefits, this sort of thing just makes it look like every now and then you get to buy a raffle ticket.
You have my sympathy - which, from a retired SNCO probably means you really deserve it as we aren't famous for sympathy, and seeing as SNCO pensions and benefits are correlated to the evening paper round and Tesco shelf stacker rates. What you get as you exit, especially after long service, should not be a lottery. Now ask me how I feel about flying pay not counting towards salary for pension purposes after drawing it for 20 years or so. (Except for the year the medics totally *****d my paperwork up).
My sympathy also for the way the usual suspects have posted to further illustrate how their daily timetable amounts to:
0600 - Get up
0601 - Be grumpy, attain pain in the @ss status
2200 - Off to bed with Ovaltine, and 'How to be grumpy' sleep hypnosis tape.
Dave
ps - in light of NCA FS getting more than a groundy Sqn Ldr - as an ex NCO aircrew FS (NCA as you now call them <g>) I fail to see any problem with this at all... we are, after all, contrasting highly treained professionals with...ooops...better stop here.... (I'm grinning, honest, it's a wind up...) As for masters - well, anyome who can walk on water WHILST chewing gum always gets my vote!
Edited to correct spelling and add a PS in light of later posts...