As a pilot going to and from combat all the time, just realize you're not signing up to have a career, you are signing up for a life-encompassing obsession that will rule you. Either that, or you don't make it. Leadership will let you die on the vine without feedback even though there are "mandatory feedback" sessions. I almost never had a leader give me any real feedback until I was in a staff job. With aircrew, it's all a big popularity contest and it feels like a very exclusive club that some are locked out of. Which ruins your morale and even your self esteem if you let it. Waste, fraud and abuse are rampant. Lots of high paid civilians camping out in jobs that could be eliminated. Leadership at lower levels in the flying community was a challenge for me personally. I found flying in a SOF unit to be an uphill battle against sexism. Sexual harassment is on the wane in terms of its "public acceptance" but it's very much alive and well in the flying world. There is so much prejudice against women pilots, I can't even get into it. I've had people say things like, "you let your little stewardess wear a flight suit?" Yes, this is 2015. Not 1975. Another complication for women later on in your career if you want to have a family, or any sort of a real marriage/relationship: You are on call 24/7. That's the reality. When you have a baby, you're out. Out of flying, out of the club, off the map, and unless you can manage a very stressful staff job working for a general, you're out of the career game, too. During deployments, you never get to go home from the stress, so you'll face your haters, day and night- the people who talk behind your back and who are easy to ignore when you are home, and you can drive your car to your house and close the door and live your life and have weekends. Sometimes- the worst times, your haters will be your crew. The people you fly with on life and death missions. Just go into it with your eyes open and watch your back. Sometimes you have to be more professional than your leaders and certainly more professional than some of your subordinates, and hope that they will catch up with you and have your back when it matters.
