Hey big daddy,

It is unlikely you will be in a position to upgrade within 2 years, even with your military experience. Although that is entirely dependent on the person-many are better than others and I won't assume you aren't....

The biggest struggle for military pilots is usually a combination of two crew and automation. Depending on what you were doing, a lot of mil guys are very used to grabbing the stick with one hand, the throttle with the other and giving her full juice from start to finish. That's just not the way it works in the airline world and there are some very different factors to consider (FAs, pax, etc).

I caution you about chasing an upgrade but of course that is your goal. I would recommend you get hired with someone with an east coast base (PSA maybe? does Mesa have an IAD base still?) and work your butt off. Study everything you can and learn from every captain you can so that when that upgrade time DOES come, which may be faster than everyone else says, you'll be ready.

Also, ignore all the people telling you to use the search function. You could be the first poster here in the history of this web site and you'd still have a bunch of people going "use the search!!!" No one has 4 days to filter through all the whiny garbage and useless crap anyway...

Good luck