Frozo,
I was with you until the KFC chips-and-gravy bit.
No sane person does that. Everyone knows Burger King chips rule. You Ronnies have no
taste.
lc_461, I
didn't do it and now I wish I had. 14 years - so farkin' what? If you're 18 now, you'll be 32 with a degree, good flying training and line experience with probably more repsonsibility than same-age guys who've come up through the civvy side, the opportunity to handle some heavy metal in interesting situations (you can't tell me that dropping a Herc into Kabul on a tactical approach doesn't teach you a thing or ten about hand-flying, which won't come in handy in your A380 15 years later...
). You'll also probably have some actual management experience which most similar age guys won't have.
Money-wise, sure the RAAF might not pay as well as your grad trainee mates at Macquarie Bank but you'll have been getting paid through uni and you're not working in some rat-farm the whole time. You're doing fun stuff and getting your hands dirty. Then if you get sick of flying and decide not to stay in or go to an airline, trust me - guys with degrees and mil experience are snapped up by the corporate sector faster than they can be turned out.
You also have the opportunity to keep learning through your career, the ADF is pretty good at supporting members doing further study.
And the beer at officers' messes is cheap and girls like guys in uniform, or so I'm told!
Jet Pilot video - clearly a Kiwi wokka pilot p!ssed off at some Aussie knucks he's observed in a bar!
Word of advice - the girls behind the bar at the Bin have seen it aaaallllllllll before.