Beachbud
To add to my post, it wasn't a "cadet" program as done at BA, LH or the others. The cadet was selected after interviews, psych and aptitude testing. It was his responsibility to get the time and training for the PPL, then the company paid for the CPL, IR, MEL so they could be brought "on line". There was a time limit for achieving the CPL, I think something like 18-24 months. It was not done at an airline academy, but at one of a list of approved training locales. As I said, only a handful of the hundred or so selected ever made it to the line.
At the time, 1967 or so, airlines were hiring guys into Connies and early jets with as little as 200 hours in a C-150. The lines were desperate for pilots as the jets came into service. I flew with a Captain who arrived with 195 hours in a Luscombe. Flew like it, too. I am remembering a story told to me by a TW Chief Pilot who flew out of the airport I worked at the time.
Since then, until the late '90s, the military was always turning out enough pilots that the airlines could hire between 50% and 85% of needs from them. The US mil had, at one time, about 20,000 pilots with an annual turnover of 3,000 to 5,000 pilots. All left the military with several thousand hours of jet "in command" time. Some US carriers had a distinct preference for a specific service.
GF