Which Armed Forces should I join?

[BanginJimmy]

In the Marines my understanding is you're a Marine first Pilot 2nd.

You are correct. It is not unusual for a pilot to have spent a few years as a platoon commander before the are accepted to flight school. Either way though, you MUST go through all the same schooling as a regular Marine officer before you go to flight school.

Army is the same thing unless you are a Warrant Officer, but most likely you'll end up Rotary wing in the Army.

Army is all rotary wing. You can be a WO or a commissioned officer to be a pilot, but for a WO it is very difficult. Especially right now with so many college grads coming out of school and finding no employment.

Navy I know nothing about,

Navy requirements exactly mirror Marine except most of them are contracted into flight school.


For all services, if you fail out of flight school your future becomes needs of the service. Most failures wont end up infantry because of their clearances and their intelligence, but that is a possibility.

and the Coast Guard isn't a totally bad route either.

Not at all. They are really doing a lot of fun stuff right now with Anti-terrorism and drugs.