First 10 years of being a Naval Aviator are fun. Being a Junior Officer in a wardroom is fun. You will get leadership challenges that you did not expect as being a Naval Officer is your primary function and pilot is your warfare specialty. Same thing for ship/sub drivers.

Jet guys can have good/bad years but 300 hours per year/900hrs per sea tour seems to be the max. You can probably expect to leave the service after about 10 years with 1000-1500 hours depending on your type/model series and what you do during your shore tours.

With the delay in the T-45 training pipeline - I would not expect to see that many new jet guys selected for the next year. The backlog should be over by next summer.

If you can embrace the fact that you will not "change the system" as a Junior Officer and that most of the stuff that really ****es folks off are either mandated by law or some other directive than the first 10 years can be fun. It goes rapidly down hill after that unless you like "organizational leadership" office type work. With the new retirement system in place it will be hard to keep any pilot in the service after their initial obligation.