[diogenes ghost]

Well, I can guarantee you that NO AF controllers 'bailed Reagan out'.

I'm sure that you, as a grizzled veteran FAA controller wannabe, are aware of certification requirements for FAA controller positions.

I can GUARANTEE you that NO AF controllers worked any traffic positions at any ARTCC in the country during the strike period. I was a 13 year veteran at Chicago ARTCC when the strike occured. Counting the guys who beat the deadline, plus supes and staff who could work traffic, we had 62 controllers to handle the busiest air traffic facility in the world.....we fired 465....WITHOUT a single AF controller.

If we got 'bailed out' by anybody, it was by furloughed airline pilots. The strike came during a recession, and there were buttloads of pilots laid off. FAA offered them temporary jobs as flight data aides in the centers. Eventually there were about 100 controllers from other centers sent to Chicago on temporary duty.

Reagan's dictat to FAA was to run enough traffic to not harm the economy (or he would Federalize). The bottleneck for the country was Chicago Center....we were the busiest and got hit the hardest...we were the key to keeping the system going.

So, WHO bailed Reagan out during the strike? Nobody...he needed no bailout, he had taken a decision and was comfortable with it.

But, in your context, who bailed the Air Traffic system out? Not AF controllers working in towers....it was 62 very tired FAA controllers and some laid-off airline pilots.

[Yosemitest]

AF controllers bailed Reagan out more than you can admit to yourself.

"I can GUARANTEE you that NO AF controllers worked any traffic positions at any ARTCC in the country during the strike period"

You're so wrong that it isn't even funny.
At Seymour Johnson AFB, when the planes showed up to take our controllers, our manning before the strike was about 105 counting management.
Of the roughly 80 people assigned to the Rapcon, we lost 35 that day,
and we had 10 more that left within the next two weeks from the Rapcon.
In addition to that, center delegated to the Rapcon more airspace and a corridor to Dare County Range, as well as Dare County Range.
The ceiling went from 12,000 feet to 18,000 feet, and the borders expanded another 50 miles to the north, east, and south. Then the corridor from Seymour's airspace at 15,000 to 18,000 was a 15 mile wide route to Dare County Range.
All of this on half the controller force, the Rapcon previously had.

Tower manning was 25 people, counting the office staff.
We lost 11 controllers, not trainees, mind you, but fully rated controllers.

Part of these controllers went to ZMA and some went to ZFW.
Some went to SDF. Some went to TLH.
And they didn't return for more than 6 months, and that was only to visit their wives and children,
and some relocated them to their FAA station, after their two day visit home.
Most were stationed at FAA locations that more than doubled their housing cost, and the reimbursement money was very slow from the finance office.

There were many other locations that our controllers were disbursed to, but I can't remember them, now.

After a year and three-quarters, we only got two of the controllers back, and one of those two caught an assignment to a remote overseas location (he had just reenlisted a week before the strike).

As our disbursed controllers ended their contract with the AF, we were tasked to send replacement controllers to those sites, even after our controller that timed out of the AF stayed at that FAA location, and didn't miss a day of work.
The controller just tripled his salary with the FAA pay.

Yes, the USAF rescued Ronald Reagan by keeping the airways safe and expeditious, when the FAA Union turned it's back on the United States.