All they ever planned to hire this winter was 100 to 150 guys to smooth the training flow for the 717 introduction. Flight ops still wanted to do that but did not get funding. The retirements came in around 190 instead of the 300 to 350 expected however the demographic that left was much more junior then expected so overall not a bad result. The 63 and 64 year old's will be leaving soon regardless.
The military guys are not unhappy and leaving the military in droves. They are dancing in the streets about manageing to get a full military retirement and having a reserved number at Delta to come back to. Getting 50 grand a year from uncle sam plus full medical and then coming back to a growing airline with frontloaded number, a additional lump sum retirement contribution from Delta for the entire time you were gone plus interest is a pretty good deal. A large block of pilots who went out in 2002-04 are hitting the 20 year point right now. They are 100 percent coming back. Of course if they read this forum they must be wondering why.