It is a shame that this escalated to both losing their jobs. It is unnecessary when you think that there are so many resources available for them to settle this before it gets out of hand.
Pro standards is perhaps a concept that should be adopted outside of the US. At my airline we have people from every background imaginable. I have had F117 stealth fighter pilots to one fellow who had never flown a turbine aircraft before he flew with me on the 757. He had about 15 thousand hours in the DC3 and was a great stick. If someone acts like a ******** it is not if they are ex military or civilian or whatever. That was their personality to begin with and it will take outside intervention by someone they will respect to effect change. That is where pro standards come in. It is peer to peer counseling and you only pick guys that have a high reputation to be on that committee.
We also have a no fly list. If there is someone you cannot stand then you can designate that person to be on your no fly list. You will not be paired with that person if you are a reserve or you will not be assigned with them during the monthly bid process. We bid using a preferential bidding program (PBS) and the program looks at the no fly preferences as part of the bidding process. No one outside of pro standards and the chief pilots office knows who is or is not on a list. Most of us have never used it. The F/Os use more than the captains so they don't have to put up with the few idiot captains we have. That has save a lot of problems in the past. It is actually good for the company because you have no cancellations due to someone bailing off the trip because they cannot get along with the other guy. The system has worked well for us for a long time.