Originally Posted by Inigo Mentoya

Slice has a good point. Another one is that Guard and Reserve life is much less painful than active duty. Guard and reserve units have lots of control over what missions they take, and AD does not. You go where they tell you, period. Also, AD folks spend ~80% of their time doing jobs that have nothing to do with flying, where as the other half fly airplanes much more, and desks much less. Nothing is perfect, but hindsight being what it is, I would seriously consider Guard/Reserve first!