I was enlisted in an Air Guard unit and tried to get a pilot slot after completing 2 years of junior collage. But there was too much competition from other enlisted with 4 yr degrees. My info is pretty old (older than you are even!) but the Guard usually requires you know someone to get something as highly coveted as a pilot slot. And if it's a fighter unit you have to worry about getting qualified for fighters in Pilot Training. If you're not judged to be fighter pilot material and only qualify for multi-crew aircraft then you're got to scramble to find a unit with heavies that will take you. Otherwise you could get the boot out of training. Again, my info is over 30 years old so things could have changed but I suspect they haven't.

After getting turned down for a Guard Pilot slot I applied to AFROTC and managed to get a pilot slot that way. Also got a 2 year ROTC scholarship which was nice. It actually worked out better for me this way since I wanted to fly heavies and my Guard unit flew fighters. I wound up in C-130's for 8 years and enjoyed the versatile flying we did.

I'll let others with more recent active duty time comment on pros and cons, but I suspect it's not that bad at the lower ranks. You might spend a lot of time away from home depending on what plane you fly. With a 10 year active duty commitment you'll progressively get more and more non-flying duties the longer you're in.

https://www.afrotc.com/about/service

https://study.com/articles/Become_an...eer_Guide.html