Salute!
The "up or out" attrition went away decades ago.
Living within a military community here in the Panhandle provides firsthand observations of our military, and not just pilots or other aircrew. We have the Ranger school, USAF Special Ops Command, 7th Special Forces Group and the F-35 training outfit.
My neighbors have "visited" the 'stan and other sandbox places more times than you can believe. The ops tempo has been brutal, and it started well before 9/11.
So most pilots and others have a minimum active duty committment and then a few years in the reserve forces. Have to check now, but folks like me that had a "regular" commission never really could go on our merry way and were subject to recall until we were old and grey.
The recall of folks in the guard and reserve units has always been available to the Pentagon. During Vietnam we had 3 or 4 guard fighter units activated when I was there in 1968. We also had a few activated for Desert Storm. Actual recall of individuals has not been all that common since Korea and WW2.
To make a political observation, the last 8 or 9 years has seen a severe cut in U.S. defense preparedness and replensihment of both machines and people. 'nuff said.
Gums sends...