I want to thank everyone for the suggestions so far!

One thing I forgot to disclaim is that I actually have already tried to fly for the Army National Guard. My dad was a pilot for my unit and I was on track for flight school. I started talking with the warrant officer recruiter for my state while in high school and began putting my packet together for Army flight school. I had everything required and it was a certain thing, but at MEPS is where I found out about my color vision issues as well as that you cannot go to flight school with the issue.

I still ended up joining as an enlisted in an aviation role with hopes of being able to find a way to go to flight school. I went to several Army flight physicals to try again and again, but failed the color vision portion each time.

The funny thing was, when I got to Ft. Rucker for AIT I had to do another physical and failed the color test there as well. Upon figuring this out, the commander of the school was trying to figure out how I had even been sent there with this issue being known.

Prior to them letting me start school, they required me to go to the schoolhouse and had an instructor test me using aeronautical charts where I had to name the different colors on the chart for the instructor. I passed, no problems at all.

So, while I could try for flight school again with the military, it is very unlikely that I will get selected as the military does not have the equivalent of the FAA's S.O.D.A. for this issue. I guess this is where my headache is right now. Do I borrow the money for civilian flight school, obtain my ratings, and build a career with the risk of losing it all one day to a failed color vision test? I know that I can test with the FAA and if I pass I will never have to worry about this issue again, however, if I fail I am done forever.

So after mentioning that I have already been in the military, one benefit available to me from that is the post 9/11 GI bill. However, because I was not on active duty I only have 60% of the benefit (I did a one year tour in Iraq which gave me the 60%, so my GI bill will pay for 60% of my training).

One question I would also have for any of the airline pilots reading this as well as any helicopter pilots reading this... Where do you draw the line with pursuing your passion? Now that you are many years into your chosen career, would you change anything or would you have done anything different? I do not mean what specific field would you have chosen, rather would you have chosen to do something different and were you "blinded" by your passion at the time of entry into this career? I am really looking for any wisdom and perspective on my issue that I can find.

I apologize for the extremely long post, this issue has just given me a lot of stress lately.

And thank you guys so much for the help!