To all of those advising the OP to use the GI Bill and such, please remember his earlier statement:
I forgot to mention that I was international SP
He wasn't in the the USAF.
I think I understood what you meant Mike, but then you go further to try and accuse people of kissing butt and insinuate that this is the only way to serve in the military. It got a lot harder to wash people out of the advanced training programs in the late 2000s too. We had one Navy guy basically get to go through the ENTIRE program (probably about 75-80% of it) again. He had a lot of prior civilian time and between all the money spent up to this point and figuring that he might not be the 'ace of the base', but a competent wingman, he was given extra training and made it through. That would not have happened in the late 80s/early90s - times are changing (or they had) and I expect that they have remain changed in the current environment.
I say it often on these forums but I'm certainly glad that I didn't have the same military experience that many of you seemed to have had. I chuckle to think that someone who knows me thinks that I told the bosses only what they wanted to hear - then or now for that matter!
I think my boss' (retired USAF type) recent comment to me during my annual PER of 'Man....sometimes you really wear me smooth...but keep it coming' speaks volumes.
I had a good friend in Primary whom I helped quite a bit. He had ZERO prior aviation experience (on top of going through a hard divorce during flight school). YEARS later he calls me out of the blue after I'd been in BEaufort SC for a few months. He had landed his Cobra on our ramp and saw my name on the side of a plane and racked me down. Seems that helos were where his hidden talent. He excelled in the HTs. Fast forward a few more years and we meet again in Quantico. He had just finished a tour in T-34s teaching those same Primary flight students.
Fly6584 and Extenda - I think you nail it pretty well.