It appears you missed the point of that letter. Yes he seemingly describes the USAF as good and all the negatives of the Navy.... but the point is if you NEED to ask AF or Navy, then go AF. The "negatives" he mentions would make a Navy-blooded guy run to his Navy recruiter.
See that's my problem. I'm not flocking toward my nearest Navy recruiter. While I admire many things about the navy, especially the travel, adventure, and being catapulted off of a pitching deck (he he), I can also appreciate the "comfortable" Air Force life. But, I know that the Air Force shenanigans will drive me crazy. There's nothing I hate more than mindless adherence to rules and regulation. I know that it's part of being in the military and I fully accept that, but I would like to minimize it, and if that's how the AF is run then I guarantee you, I
will flock to the nearest Navy recruiter. The only thing that holds me back from the navy is boat life. It seems a little bit like living on a floating metal prison. Then again, I know absolutely nothing of boat life.
I, as an aviator, want to be challenged and want to have an opportunity to do great things. Norris's description made the navy sound like 99% boredom and 1% terror. Maybe I'm just reading it in a different tone, but I thought the Navy was about doing things the air force was too scared to do (like landing aboard a pitching deck at night) and Top Gun like stuff. When I hear statements like "long tedious deployments" and "missing important family events" I think of scrubbing decks for long hours thinking to myself "when will it end?" I know this isn't true, and I know there is plenty of "deck scrubbing" (aka office work) in the Air Force, but for some reason this is what I envision when reading Bob's letter.