First posting in the forum, but maybe my insights might help.
I flew F-16's and only accumulated a total of 994 hours (T-41, T-37, T-38, and Viper). But that all happened a long time ago: my last flight in the F-16 was April of 2002. I left flying for good, or so I thought, by serving out the rest of my commitment on the ground working with the Army and then getting out in 2005. After a couple of years bouncing around, I got a great job at Boeing in Mesa AZ working on the Apache. Zero plans to ever fly again.
Until this past Christmas when, out of frustration trying to move to the southeast to be closer to my wife's family, I started asking colleagues about going back to flying because you can commute to your job. Long story short: I got immediate interviews and offers with Envoy (who still haven't called me back because their training pipeline is backed up, or so I've heard) and then at ExpressJet. I'm typing this from the hotel room in Houston, one month into ERJ-145 training. No, I have not gone straight to the big show with a major carrier, but I don't want to at this point: I think a regional jet and regional type of flying is exactly where I need to be. I'll start applying to the big boys in earnest when I get an unrestricted ATP.
My point in all this is that I did not fly for 16 YEARS, and without even going to get recurrent, landed 2 offers at regionals. There are a couple of reasons for this: I did get my commercial multi rating with the FAA right after pilot training. But more importantly, I have military flight training. It is simply the gold standard. Of course, the hiring climate right now is pretty good, and I didn't even know it existed until 6 months ago.
And man do I have some stories from flying the Viper.
Going military is something that's a lot of hard work, but in time you will not regret it. It opens the doors to a lot of opportunities.