Your last sentence is spot on. To the sim thing, has anyone here ever been asked to prove the didn't do any mloa while on a reserve day? I know I haven't, nor has any of the 20+ DAL squadron mates I've had over the years. If so, I'd like to see the whole picture because I'm guessing there is much more to the story. I'm generally the last one to defend the company, but the 1% is out there...and they're often the loudest complainers and the stories you hear about. If you have a CPO friend (or just chat with CPO mil dude on a sit), ask if they're willing to share stories of guys who found themselves on the radar. My guess is you'll be quite surprised at what some of the dudes are doing out there.
I believe USERRA is the minimum protection a company HAS to offer. If the company offered such a program, you wouldn't need USERRA protections because the company is voluntarily going above and beyond.
Maybe, but at the end of the day, the company can hire who they choose, put them through indoc and let them go on a leave. So they may be involved, but I can't imagine they can stop such a plan, nor would I understand why they would.