I'll let your AF buddies fill you in on the particulars of your accomplishments as far as airline hiring practices go; but for those youngsters coming up and looking to go military this quote above is important.
Truthfully I doubt the AF is any different from other service branches in this mentality, but maybe my former branch just did a better chance of putting it out there. their quote was "We didn't 'hire' you to be a pilot. We 'hired' you to be a Marine".
It is too bad in some ways. There are plenty that wanted the same thing as bojonpilot, but we all knew it going in. If we wanted that guarantee then we should probably have all gone Army WO. It has been batted around for the Corps even at different points in time.
So again - for the new guys outside looking in, go into the committment with your eyes wide open. There are certain hoops that you need to jump through to keep the upward mobility viable. If all you want to do if fly, then go in and do your best and get out at your first opportunity. You will have done more than most can claim, had some great times, trained with some true professionals, done a job worth doing, and now move on to your new high hope.
My opinion.

USMCFLYR