As a guy who comes from a civilian background, I strongly disagree with your ridiculous assessment. It sounds like you’re coming from a position of envy or jealousy or something, idk. That’s what I’m getting a whiff of.

I taught civilians as a CFI, then moved on to teaching military pilots as a civilian contractor for the U.S. Army. While military pilots aren’t perfect, here are some things I’ve observed:

1) This is the biggest. They are far, FAR more motivated and disciplined to get the job done, and GET AFTER it more than anything I’ve ever seen with like, 95% of my civilian colleagues. I RARELY told my army students to get studying. I ALWAYS had to tell my civilians to get cracking on studying. This is not meant to be a dig towards my civilian cohorts, just something I’ve observed as a matter of fact, based on my experiences as an IP having taught both civilian students and military students. I can’t help but notice the differences with the discipline and motivation levels between the 2 groups. It’s pretty damn obvious. Most of my civilian cohorts have not taught both military and civilian students, only civilians. So they aren’t aware that there are in fact, tremendous differences between the 2.

2). Military pilots tend to have a much thicker skin than civilians do. I’ve seen this time and time again. I’ve noticed this in my airline career so far on a 121 flight deck, and I noticed it as an instructor. They definitely learn from their mistakes and don’t take things personally. Are there some exceptions? Of course. But by and large, military guys seem to be much better able to ‘get back up, wipe the dust off them, and move forward, try it again, and don’t give up’ then I’ve ever seen on average with civilians. Are there some civilians who exhibit these characteristics? Certainly, but there just aren’t that many of them.

3) Military guys, on average compared to civilians, seem to know how to wear the airline pilot uniform correctly and don’t need to be told how to wear it. I’ve seen too many civilians especially the younger ones at my regional shop that seem to constantly disregard the FOM and what it says on how to wear the uniform properly. Some people are an utter embarrassment with how they wear it. This attitude is far reaching and it affects their presentation, in my opinion when it comes to getting a job at a major. Maybe if they’d present themselves a little better, maybe they could snag a CJO sooner? Maybe??? Just throwing it out there. I’ve heard more than my share of captains complain about seeing military guys getting CJO’s at majors and bitxxing about how ‘the majors are a buddy system for military dudes, it’s all about knowing someone from your squadron, and then you’re in.’ Yes, some idiot actually said that. And he was a terrible captain to fly with too. After doing a 4 day with him, it became obvious as to why he wasn’t getting calls from the majors. And this was during the ‘hiring surge’ in 2023 mind you.

4) Military pilots, on average, seem to know how to follow standardization better than civilians do. I’ve had too many civilian FO’s that complain about why we need to do things a particular way, this is BS, that’s BS, blah blah blah, far more than I’ve seen military pilots do it. It’s really aggravating as a captain to listen to it. I asked one FO who ‘strongly disagreed’ with how the company wants us to fly a descend via profile on a star saying it’s ’just Stupid, doesn’t make sense.’ I said to him man I hope you don’t deviate from the standards so much when you upgrade, because speaking up to you as an FO will become a nightmare, and your an accident waiting to happen. Don’t be doing that crap with my family onboard. We aren’t a 135 op. He immediately toned it down after that.

But anyway, i digress. Think you get the point, maybe, maybe not, I don’t really care. But, one thing I’ve noticed with some of my FO’s lately, especially the younger ones, is that quite a few of them seem to have a really thin skin. Suck it up, buttercup. You’re not special. I don’t care what your mommy and daddy said about you your whole life growing up. You aren’t special. You can either take that as a personal insult, or take it and use it for some serious self correction, and better yourself and do something to make yourself look more competitive, and less entitled.