[SW6906]

For US carriers I believe the experience level is higher. For foreign carriers, it is more likely to see someone with little big jet experience. Case in point: A good friend of mine went from flying bush pilot in Alaska to Comair flying commuter turboprops to flying the 787 at a Middle East-based airline in about ten+ years.

[Tzfat]

That was my point. OP was making an idiotic assumption that the pilot must not have been military because this happened today - whereas 20 years ago all the pilots hired by the airlines were military. That was a silly assertion on many levels:

1. Where someone was initially trained makes little differences after they have worked for an airline for a few years. I know, I have been an airline pilot for 34 years - 28 at a major airline.

2. 20 years ago, the pilots hired by the airlines were NOT mostly military. That has not occurred since the end of WWII

3. The captain on this particular flight was not a newby. He/she likely had seniority of AT LEAST 20 years.

There is a common thread in a number of SWA accidents and incidents - and it is not where the pilots come from (military/civilian). SWA has a lot of pilots from many backgrounds - however, after a few years, wherever they came from, they become 100% SWA pilots. That means that the very good, the good, the average, and the marginal pilot all share one thing at that airline: the SWA cockpit culture. That does not mean that this incident directly relates to that or not - but there is a cockpit culture at SWA that is unlike any other major airline in the USA.