Leo,
Time is running out, you need to decide and make realistic & informed choices.
First off, look to your future...everyone of us have wanted to be a fighter jock at one time or another, but the reality of the matter is that there are many other flight jobs of equal importance to achieving a military/political goal. I’d be a bit concerned if I were on the ground in a firefight, had to call in an air strike and the pilot was more focused with “scoring” an air to air kill. A fighter jet is useless without fuel from an aerial tanker, as it is useless without spare parts flown in on C-17’s, as a downed pilot is in deep !@#$ with out a rescue helicopter...and all those men & women who are integral members of the TEAM.
Navy; the F-14 is almost ready for retirement and the JSF is not yet ready. The F-18E/F is not my choice of mount for design/engineering /performance reasons, when compared with the aircraft it is supposed to replace. You don’t get to “see” much of the world while anchored out in the harbor. Yes, flying traps at night on a pitching deck is fun for the 1st couple of times, and then it looses its amusement. Flying Navy is not a prerequisite for Astronaut.
Air Force; 9 to 5 job, best and newest equipment, most prestigious branch. Ah that new airplane smell! Lots of R&D, special technology fields to advance into. Again, flying Air Force is not a prerequisite for Astronaut.
Look to your future; how many aviators & pilots make it to the NASA programs? It’s the education, not so much the flight experience that qualifies them. Also, what to do when you decide to get out? What and where are/will be the aviation jobs in the civilian sector?
viperbaron.............