I checked out of this thread a while back. A few observations -
Zap is good people. He and I exchange texts often and he knows how I feel on the mil vs civilian subject. SWA has a subculture of Air Force fighter guys who are very into being Air Force fighter guys. They hired their own for a long time back when they were doing interviews at PHX specifically for Luke guys and so that mentality spread through the airline. Now, those guys have a lot of great experience and we all know they are great aviators, just ask them, but when you don’t have a diverse mix of people in your cockpits, that is a bad thing.
I think that trend is definitely in decline and having that diverse skill set is more the norm now than seeing a class of almost all military guys.
Alas, the civ vs military debate wages on. It seems like a favorite topic on these forums because nobody is furloughed and we all need someone to bash I guess.
Look, this is an exciting time to be an airline pilot and SWA is no exception. Things are great here, we have a great group of pilots, and soon we will all be wearing gold plated diapers.

I just finished training and depending on who I talked to we are either hiring 700 or 1100 this year. Best of luck to those who want to call SWA home. It isn’t without its warts, as I will be the first to admit, but I am cautiously hopeful for the future.