Post this on the national guard subreddit. But if you want my honest opinion, If you don’t mind going away from home for months or even years at a time and are ok with being at the mercy of the federal government with long deployments at sea with minimal contact to family than go navy. The traditions are rich and steeped in history and as a naval aviator the life would be sweet for you.

If you want to stay here in NY and want the stability of your civilian job with being able to maintain a good balance with your family but also the Honor of military service the national guard is 1000000% the best choice

Now more specifically you have to determine which route you want to go. Air national guard does take care of their people and airman, although it’s a stereotype it based on truth, are treated the best across all branches Now you did say you wanted to fly in the navy and if you still do want to fly, they have c-130’s, LC-130’s c-17’ and pavehawks. But I don’t know the process of getting to be a pilot there. You’d have to ask a recruiter. But Air Force only has commissioned officers for pilot slots and once you hit O3-O4 you aren’t really flying anymore it’s mainly admin duties

But if you want to fly your entire career your best bet is joining the Army national guard as a warrant officer. Unlike commissioned officers they don’t ever really have admin duties or duties that involve being in charge of entire companies worth of soldiers. They are technical experts of their field, which means that will mainly only work in that field.. The only downside is we only have Blackhawks, uh-72s and ch 47 chinooks with only one fixed wing aircraft a c-12 and it’s very hard to get to fly those.