CaptainMark,
Your theory would have some merit if FedEx hired the same profile as most other majors. By and large they do not. Your average FDX pilot civilian or military tends to be hired at an older age here than at other majors. I know that there are people like you but that's not the norm. As a sidenote, I suppose they do it for cheaper pension payouts but it also allows some of us pilots to puff up our chests and feel that were better or more qualified than our counterparts at other carriers. Anyway your typical ex-regional check airman type who comes to FDX likely has the same wife and 3 kids that the military guy does, he's just 5-8 years younger but equally uninterested in living in Paris or Hong Kong on 50 bones an hour.