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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
I really doubt that anyone is going to be part of the National Guard after 18 years in Special Forces due to the strain on the body, especially since they will really not benefit from it much (they get an extra 25% added to their effective time for every year in the reserves).
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Danny Daniels did not join the 20th SFG National Guard because he expected to receive a meaningful financial improvement to his pension or current consulting fees from it. He does it because it allowed him to still retain a connection with a community of men with whom he feels a sense of belonging. Also, because as a civilian, he'd never get to play with some of the toys.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
t is much better to retired at 25 years and become a private contractor for 4-5x as much as military pay.
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Granted, between 2008-2010, Daniels wasn't any kind of economic success story, as he started out slow in his civilian career, but things picked up and for the last seven years of his National Guard service, Daniels earned more as a consultant than some enlisted men earn in their whole careers.
Danny's salary as a security consultant for a number of Houston-area oil and gas comapanies
was roughly x4 what he received when on active duty. I'll grant that him having a National Guard commitment is reflected in him being able to work slightly fewer hours per month and which may translate into a reduction in overall earnings somewhat disproportinately, but we're still talking only 10-15% fewer hours he can work. So, maybe Danny is pulling in $300,000 year instead of 360,000, in exchange for not being just a suit, but still able to define himself part of the SOF community.
And that's if we assume that the weekends and yearly training cycle of Danny's National Guard commitment all come out of work hours for Danny. More realistically, to some extent, the drill and training counts as socialization with people he likes and enjoys spending time with, and the training counts as time engaged with his hobbies (playing with high-tech gear, maintaining airborne certification, flying on military helicopters, diving, splashing about on fast boats, etc.). Technically, Danny can work full-time hours at his consultant job and count a weekend a month and an annual two weeks as a perfectly reasonable personal time to himself.
That being said, I expect that the 20th SFG may be funded for more call-ups, more frequent training and a higher rate of attendance of all sort of service schools that many other National Guard units, as they are expected to maintain readiness as a Special Forces formation, not to mention being culturally familiar with their area of responsibility. So, Danny is probably spending more of hims time than the bare minimum National Guard commitment on remaining a member of 20th SFG until he is legally required to retire.
It's just that Daniels is quite comfortable with making somewhat less money than he ultimately could. Even with his National Guard commitments, Danny has time to do as much consulting for oil companies as he can stomach. It's lucrative, but the actual work of evaluating offshore oil rig communication networks and protocols in case of emergencies and suggesting improvements in anything from antiterrorism to hurricane preparations is nowhere near as interesting to Danny as time spent with fellow special operators doing high-speed, low-drag training.
That being said, Daniels' consulting job is quite real, but while parts of it are indeed fairly boring, he also upgrades communications network and emergency protocols for other threats than hurricanes and hypothetical terrorism on offshore oil rigs. He also upgrades the comm networks with redundant shielded systems of simple and robust build, designed to still work during paranormal incidents, and along with a few other consultants with the appropriate experience and skills, he designs emergency response plans to supernatural threats.
From time to time, Danny even gets to be proactive in engaging esoteric threats. Instead of just anti-monster defense, he and his fellow consultants sometimes put on their 'Night Rider' hats and do direct action counter-monster work. Indeed, as Daniels is finally forced to retire from the US Armed Forces, his sole outlet for tactical training (and occasionally more than training) is his 'Night Rider' (Monster Hunter) work, where he belongs to a team mostly composed of prior service SOF personnel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
For example, someone with that much experience (and rank) in Special Forces could easily become a Chief Security Officer for a Fortune 500 company, allowing them to pull in $500,000/year (plus benefits).
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Danny isn't the MBA degree, elegant suit or boardroom type.
Note that from what I can tell more typical salaries for shorter service SOF operators are between $100,000-$200,000. Senior NCPs rate $250,000+. In both cases, these were overseas contractor rates, which are not as common in the 2010s, especially the latter half, as they were in the 2000s.
Danny's regular salary in 2017 was $350,000, with another $200,000 in personal consulting fees. Plus stock options. But he never wore a suit to work and he had the free time for a weekend every month with his buddies and the occasional training rotation with choppers and Kill Houses.