Fair enough. I just think he/she has an issue with military pilots either getting the job at SWA or one's that are still flying in the Reserve/Guard.
RedDog,
I 100% agree with you. SWA/FO is just one of those dude/dudettes that will always believe that the only reason we are in the guard/reserve is for the part time $ and retirement, and nothing we say will change their minds. Their simple claim is that if we were that patriotic then why did we leave active duty? The answer of years of non-flying staff/ship's company/FAC jobs, etc. in the last 10 years of a 20-year career fall on deaf ears. The potential risk of being less competitive for a post-retirement flying job after driving a desk for many years is also ignored. Our peers like SWA/FO simply believe that we scam.
Granted, there a certainly those handful of scammers that give us all a bad name, but to paint everyone with the same brush is just wrong. Unfortunately, it seems like there are those like SWA/FO that wind up in positions of leadership within flight ops of our airlines. Sounds like your OAK CP's might be an example.
On a related note, I read a few months ago about a national guardsman/Southwest ramp agent from MCI who was killed in combat in the desert. He was a pretty senior NCO who could have retired years ago, but he continued to serve for personal and patriotic reasons. I wonder if his fellow rampers felt like SWA/FO and resented his "working his plan" over the years as he had to drop shifts and work his ramp schedule around his military service? Did they also think he was just "double-dipping" for the money and using USERRA to his advantage? My guess is no, that they were proud of him, his service and his sacrifice and they were saddened by his loss in the line of duty.
Thankfully, I do believe that people like SWA/FO are in the minority. Hopefully you won't have to fly with him/her when the name changes to SWA/CA
Back to the original reason for my response here to the 2006 hiring stats at SWA. I was just wondering out loud if there is more to the story, i.e. employers are shying away from hiring guard/reserve applicants due to potential future military leave conflict. This has been documented with some companies ("just the facts.."), could this be the case with pilot hiring? Illegal but hard to prove as long as everyone goes through the same interview process. The hiring committee does not have to say why.
Just my two cents. Thanks for your service RedDog and my comments are not meant to bash Southwest, just wondering if there is a change in hiring philosophy going on in the industry due to the military's extensive use of guard/reserve in the past few years.
Ben