…I’m still amazed…especially since he had an Air Force retirement with paid health benefits and pension…
Personally I always felt that the military health benefits, pension plans, etc. should never be brought up in any pay/retirement comparisons because frankly they deserved even more than what they got for serving our country. Some people will say, well, on top of their regular retirement they're also getting the military retirement, etc. However, one could also say that if it wasn't for their military commitment – a service which benefited all of us - their overall retirement benefits would’ve been a whole lot bigger as they'd have spent an extra 10, 15, or 20 years on an airline’s seniority list. Either way - military retirements are well deserved and personally I wish they were paid much more than they are.
...I was being very polite and friendly to the fellow indicating only how thankful I was to be in training. I was interested in his air force accomplishments and the equipment he had flown and in no way demonstrated or indicated I thought his best days were over...
In this case it sounds like you ran into a jerk, that’s all. I can’t tell if you’re fairly new or not (me 2+ years) but surely you must have noticed this guy’s an exception to the rule. The vast majority of the pilots here are absolutely great and I hope you and I and the rest of us won’t have to run into people with his attitude here very often. Heck, just look at the 40K+ all of us collected for the new hire fighting stomach cancer! – things like that make me proud to be a part of this group.