Albie,
Whenever I fly with a fighter bro at UPS I'll ask about his flying experience prior to UPT and the vast majority had previous time. You hit the nail on the head with your "Halo" comment. Those studs who were quickly crowned with a halo in tweets really had to screw up bad to lose it. I went to CBM (87-04)and flew with "Skeletor" before he was an examiner. He's at my airline now.
BTW have you read Ray Wright's book, "If you ain't a Pilot". It's about UPT at CBM and Skeletor is mentioned often. Best book I read in the last 5 years.