Army?
Hi once again littleflyer,
BE CAREFUL!
You need to decide just exactly what kind of flying you want to spend your career of perhaps two or three decades doing, AND STICK TO IT! If you want to be a civil airline pilot flying airliners then the Army is NOT the place to go. If you want to be a commercial helo pilot, then perhaps.
Your uncle is no doubt an enthusiastic soldier (and the nation is fortunate indeed still to have such people in its service,) but would you be?
I believe Army flying is 'open to all arms' and most Army pilots are seconded from other arms and only spend perhaps three years with the Air Corps after which they return to ordinary soldiering. (My AME was an Army doctor who decided to have a go at flying, became an Army helicopter pilot, then years later he left the Army and became a commercial helo pilot, and became an AME only after he retired: quite incredible).
Would you be permitted to remain in the Air Corps for your whole career?
I would guess that to do it you would have to sign on for a minimum of 12 years, how do you feel about that?
Even if you were successful in getting yourself into the Army Air Corps, you would only do a very limited amount of fixed wing flying early in your training, as the Army only operates rotary wing aircraft operationally. So all your operational experience would be on helicopters and on leaving the service, you would probably be able to make a career in civil flying only as a commercial helicopter pilot.
Furthermore, just at the moment there is an awful lot of dissillusion among military pilots in all services, not just the Army. An awful lot of service people have had enough and want to get out. Just take a look at the military flying threads on this website and you'll see what I mean.
BroomstickPilot.