Advice: Go to medical school

Go to Pharmacy School. 100k for counting pills.

Ang is a great idea. There are a bunch of guys that fly F-15's for the Guard and also at Aloha or Hawaiian as their real jobs-the best of both worlds.

I'll ditto that earlier marine with the cute pants. Got married, had a kid went on deployment all in the first year in my squadron. Now flight school, that was another matter.

I'm former military and now at FedEx. While I enjoyed my time in and received great flight training, I think the quickest way to FedEx, UPS (or any major that's hiring) is through the regionals. My class at FedEx was mostly civilian...Pinnacle, ASA, Skywest etc., and most of the guys were around 30 years old, some younger. I don't know anything about that lifestyle other than what my sim partner (former ASA captain) told me but he's here at FedEx and several years younger than me. Last I looked the AF had a ten year commitment after UPT (which is a year long program), so if you're 21, you would be at least 32 before you could even get out and that's if you went to UPT next week and there was no stop loss when you try to separate. The AF is trying to get rid of pilots right now but if history tends to repeat itself, they will be critically short of manpower down the road. Who knows what could happen.
My sim partner and other class mates have glass time (CRJs), understand the civilian system better than me, and like I said earlier, are younger too! I'm sure they paid their dues in more ways than one but trust me, military guys do too. The ANG/Reserve sounds good but can you upgrade quicker to PIC than at a civilian gig? In a fighter unit, yes, but unless you're full time (hard to come by) I think it might take awhile. From what I gather, the regionals are hiring like crazy right now. Sounds like the path of least resistance to me.
Good luck in your quest.

Tim - I did the civilian route, starting out in the right seat of a BE-18 in 1991.

Here is the most crucial thing for you if you want to go civilian: what will your wife do?

I married a 22 year old hottie with a BS in nursing from Auburn. She worked night shift while I flew free lance corporate, commuter, ACMI cargo, and got on with fedex. Now she's a 37 year old yummy mummy, retired and home-schooling 3 kids.
I say again - for the civilian route, you absolutely have to marry an income stream.

p.s. If you have any chance at all of going military you'd be missing a huge chance not to. I just couldn't pass the eye test....

Huck's advice is spot on...marry a nurse! ;)

I married a hottie nurse too but mine's from Bama. Roll Tide!

I had a little blonde give me a midnight tour of Denny Chimes up in TCL once- before I met Mrs. Huck, of course....

What Huck said. Except Option #2 stay single until you are a 727 Capt at FDX. It worked for me.

I think it's a good move to buy your own plane for your ratings and maybe do some free lance instructing in. 135 freight outfits aren't looking for a lot of multi, though, so I wouldn't feel the need to buy a twin to build multi. You're better off getting up to 1200 total with the Cherokee and then getting a little multi time in.