No punks/future punks should form their opinion based on the metric shit ton of sport bitching that goes on here (I’m guilty). I spent 11 years AD and had a great time; the bullshit was there, but it’s not as bad as it seems here except in unique cases. And I say that not just because things worked for me, but because I can count on one hand the amount of legitimate “he got screwed” times that happened across 9 years in 4 fighter squadrons I was in + at least 6 others I was close with (i.e. the other FS on base), not to mention talking to friends from all over different communities in the AF. I got out because the next 9 years was not going to work for my family, but the first half of your career when you’re not married/married with no kids/only have very young kids - the things we bitch about as Majs with 2 older kids and a wife are just not a big deal yet.
If you’re a young guy who wants to fly, you should consider the guard for sure, but don’t discount AD. Yeah you’ll probably want to punch around year 8-10, but there’s a good chance you’ll have a pretty good time for those 8-10 years. There’s also a chance you’re miserable, but I think that’s truly unlikely unless you are the most unlucky person in the world, or more likely, you’d still have a shitty attitude even if offered free blow jobs every day.
FWIW, several of my airline friends talk about how much the old captains bitch about how much the airlines suck now, the company is always screwing pilots, management is bullshit, the old days were millions of times better than now, etc. Sound familiar?
This is not to defend all the fuckery of the AF and the asshats who climb the ladder and are the root causes of many problems, but how bad do you want to fly awesome airplanes and shoot ISIS in the face/directly support those who do? If sport bitching Majs and some threat of dumb queep makes you second guess it, then go be a CFI, work your way to a regional, eventually get to a major and enjoy life.