So by the looks of things, USAF regs are more liberal in regards to duty day, but more restrictive about crew rest (we need 12 hrs.)
That's always been true in the multicrew USAF, but not in the fighter world -- 12 hours duty/8 hours flying max per day, period, end of story. We had to get official waivers in writing from HQ USAF for the Libya raid and the practice flights that preceded it.
However, at least through the late 70's, the US Navy had no crew rest rules -- CO's responsibility, and that was it. You could come to work at your regular squardon job (like Airframes Branch Officer) at 0700, work all day, and then fly a night low-level/bombing hop getting back at 2230 -- after which you were expected to be back at work at 0700 the next morning. Our squadron CO set an "8-hours of sleep" rule for the night before you were flying, but no real limit on duty day after that. Aboard ship at sea, it wasn't even a consideration -- you flew when you had to, slept when you could, stood watches when scheduled, and did your regular squadron job in whatever time wasn't already being used.
The Air Guard was technically bound to the USAF rules, but the only times that counted were Guard duty times. If you went to your day job at 0800 and showed up at the Guard unit at 1700 for your night's flying, the 12-hour duty clock started then, not at 0800, and if you flew 'til midnight, that was just fine, although you then couldn't report back at the Guard unit until 1200 the next day. Further, if you got off Guard duty at midnight, and went to your day job at 0800, you were still good to go with the Guard as long as you didn't report there until after 1200, even though you really had only 8 hours off that night.
When I got into the active duty Air Force, it felt like a country club -- min of 12 hours off duty before a day with flying, max of twelve hours from reporting time that day to last landing. And they had an official beer locker in the squadron for after flying, too! You sure didn't see
that on the big gray boat.
