I'd agree with what TogaANG and Block30 have said above, re. Guard Bro's (though I never, ever, used that term 20+ years ago!) and for Frank, re. the Delta Family, it was a LOT tighter back in the days when we had many small bases, for the same reasons, the guys you flew with were also your neighbors, and with our old bidding system, you would very often fly every trip, all month, with the same guys (all 3 of us, in the 727, L10, DC8, etc.) so we got to know each other very, very well, just like in a Guard Unit.

Heck, half the guys in my NH ANG unit were also flying for Delta based in BOS, so we knew each other TWICE as well! Our wives got together with the other wives and kids, we would see each other all over town, etc, so it really was much more of a Family type operation, both at Delta and at the Guard.

Then along came Mo'Ron, he closed all the smaller bases (BOS, MIA, ORD, MSY, HOU, DFW, and I'm sure I'm forgetting one or two!) and we all became commuters over night, put into the huge mass of humanity that is The ATL. Add to that, the new PBS bidding, where you many never see the same guy next week, or ever fly with him again, well, it's just become too generic as far as the Family thing goes.

If you are lucky, you get into a small category and maybe you'll fly with the same guys a few times, and get to know each other a bit more, but sooner or later, one of you will bid off and you may never see them again.

Just one of the drawbacks of having a very large pilot group.

The good news is, Delta does a pretty good job of weeding out the real idots and psychopaths, so you will almost always get along with whom ever you end up flying with.