join the service because you are patriotic and want to serve something more important than yourself. if you are self absorbed, you will be shunned by your fellow officers if you can make it to a commission. being an officer was the proudest thing i ever did. that pride will go to my grave no matter what benefits or how much money i made or will make in the remainder of my time.

And you are judging his skills skills on an Archer which he probably hadn't flown before (or rarely). If he was an F/A-18 guy - - I can promise you that he has done some more complicated flying, and succeeded, than what is required in an Archer at any moment in time. This line of thinking is no different than if I took you and your experience and put you in the simulator behind the carrier (as I have had the opportunity to do many times) and watch those pilots flail on what should be a simple ILS type approach until 3/4 of a mile behind the boat and then take over a visual approach.

I will agree with the premise of your post - too many variables to make general statements, but at the same time, you seem fine with pointing out a singular occurance to try and make some point just because the guy was a Hornet pilot. I have shared my experiences on this board with my transition into professional flying and the challenges that I encountered. I ahev said that I am probably from the absolute WORSE background possible for my current job, but one thing that I learned/brought from my military flying is the being *trainable*. Although I might not bring the skills that others might already have (for instance USAF heavy pilots), I can learn these new skills quickly and I am adaptable to the different environment.
Yes - there are people in the military with debt. I ran across many of them and it is unfortunate. I think you are over thinking what rickair was trying to say though and taking everything to literally. If you joined the military and learned to fly, then you are probably not saddled with the legendary $100,000+ ERAU/UND/etc... pile of debt when just starting out that, which according to this board, is stifling and crushing and never allows a pilot to get on their feet and start building a life. Not that this notion isn't full of generalizations as we know there are pilots out there who have handled this situation just fine too and are making a go of it full steam ahead.

^^^ +1. You have to have the desire to serve your nation. Deciding to attempt this path because it pays better than a CFI? Is this a joke? Of course it pays better...a lot better. But I wouldn't want to serve with someone who was there for that reason. I actually get angry just thinking about it.

This kid sounds like a lot of military pilots including myself, he's probably wanted to fly since he was old enough to know what an airplane was. Would I be in the AF right now if I had not had the opportunity to be a pilot? Absolutely not. I come from an entire family of civilian pilots and I'm proud to wear the uniform every day I go to work, but I can't say I would have chosen to serve if I hadn't had the opportunity to be a pilot. I know for a fact I would not have signed a 10 year commitment if I thought that time wasn't going to be spent flying airplanes. When I submitted my OTS package I only selected "Pilot" as a job choice, not Nav, not ABM and definitely not "Needs of the AF." Call me selfish, throw the Service Before Self line at me, but that's the way it is.

Look at the debacle that our budget process, force shaping, and government in general has become... I don't think I would want any of my kids to follow my path into the service. I would support them if that's what they truly want to do, but I would be brutally honest with them about what kind of environment they will be signing their life away to be a part of.

Of course we all went in to fly...but it's because we wanted to fly the world's best military aircraft and were drawn to the mission, not because we thought it would pay more than a CFI.

Agreed, I would not recommend a career in mil aviation to any of my 4 kids. It's completely different than it was even 10 years ago.