Yes, GP's description is incorrect (to be kind, it's just bullshit). If the position is removed (say H-60 maintenance at some base is now contracted out) then the enlisted members doing the work would not switch to contractors over the weekend or even over the span of a few weeks, they'd be moved to another base or another job on the same base.
replyNow, the people being hired by the contractors are often former enlisted maintainers, but it won't be the ones doing the job previously because of a switchover like this. Those crews will have PCS'd.
Sometimes they do but often they quit because the work life balance is much better.
replyIf you’re enlisted (or even commissioned in most cases), you quite literally don’t get to quit.
replyDepends on your terms of service and their expiry date. The google term you're looking for is "voluntary separation". Despite what you see in media, nothing in the military bureaucracy is iron-clad. People can and do leave all the time. Usually they keep you for 6 months and then you're off, sometimes without certain benefits depending on circumstances.
replyThe exceptions prove the rule. The situation OP described (military members just ‘quitting’ on short notice and working private sector) aren’t possible for 99% or more of service members.
replyThey're dismissed due to a reduction in force.
replyThat’s pretty rare in the USAF. Most servicemembers will be sent to be retrained on a different airframe or even into a different career field unless their date of separation doesn’t make it worth it. Voluntary separation programs do sometimes pop up but they’re not that common.
replyIt is common to have people separating and coming back immediately as contractors into basically the same job, but that’s usually because there is already a contracted workforce in place and they made connections while serving.
But it is the same affect as what the OP said. In a large organisation, attrition is so high that if you slow recruiting you will soon have a lower headcount. So yes the uniformed deployable military are replaced with civilian 9-5ers. But not the very same people, just the very same roles.
replyI don't think this changes how I feel about it.