You and your friends are little or no use to an airline as you stand. Your hours are low and you don't have any convertible qualifications. To even qualify to apply for a job with a bottom-of-the-pool commercial operator, you would need to take the ATPL ground examinations, carry out the CPL/IR flying course and skill tests, undergo an MCC course, and probably do so kind of LOFT course. Then you'd probably have to pay for the type rating and line training. Your Grob/Tucano/Hawk hours would effectively count for little more than air experience; in other words you are well below the 200-hour fATPL graduate in the pecking order. So you'd have to start from scratch - and pay for the privilege.
Ring Virgin? Get 3000 hours on relevant aircraft types (or fast jets) and the appropriate licences and courses, then you might qualify to apply to us. At the moment, we employ very few with less than 5000 hours and those are mainly on A340/330/320s.
My advice to your mates is to stay where they are, make the best of things (and there is a great deal to be made of military flying) and get the hours and licences under their belts. In time - probably 6 or 7 years down the line - they will have acquired sufficient aviation credibility to offer their services to the civilian world with the reasonable expectation of being given due credit for their experience. Right now, they're not worth a damn to the airlines.
Scroggs