They see enough to save up for their cars junior year! Back in my day it was a Corvette, then for a time it was a Hummer, or a big Ford truck. I was kidding with my friend, AF class of '74 about his Corvette and his wife said “And we still have it.”
He was not a career officer and did his time in the AF (mostly in Oklahoma but he liked that because he’s from Oklahoma) and then became a pilot with United and retired about 5 years ago. Now he’s a Gentleman Farmer having bought his family’s ranch in Oklahoma and partners with others in the ‘Show Cow’ businesses. He’s a member of the Natl Western stock show, which is a really big deal around here.
A former boss also attended the AFA and he did his time, went to law school and opened a law firm. He did join the Air Guard and at the start of the Iraq war joined up as a foot soldier at age 50+. He also had a Corvette but it wasn’t his original one.
The guy who sat in front of me at my government job also went to the AFA, did his time, went to law school. His benefit was that when he got a job at NAS Jax, he talked them into giving him credit for his time in the military toward his govt pension so had 11 years in from AFA/AF, then 3-4 years from his agency job, and then went on to work at NAS Jax (as a civilian) so was almost at retirement benefits (plus 3 weeks of vacation) and he knew the ‘military way’ and that helps a lot when working as a civilian.
Even though they didn’t stay in the military, they were still very military. The Gentleman Farmer still does a lot with AF buddies, they go to games at the Academy, they play golf, etc. He just wanted to fly full time so took the job with United.