One of the reasons I wanted to chose helos was to quickly transition to the MV-22 - after all they were just around the corner!
Almost 15+ years later - they finally hit the fleet!
Good thing I ended up not basing my assignments on what some Flag was saying at the time.
OP - I've lived in both Virginia Beach and Lemoore - and I currently live in OKC. Guess I've hit all of your hot-spots.
Opinions - I had an on-wing (former S-2 pilot) that was incredibly jaded against helos and gave me quite the lip smacking when I told him I had decided to chose helos. Opinions are just those - and you have to take into account WHERE and WHO they are coming from and the experiences/backgrounds of those giving them to really make much sense of them
FlyBoyd and FlewNavy have great advise in their posts.