Infantry was my second choice after aviation. I was going to be a 4th generation infantry officer if aviation didn’t work out. After doing some infantry stuff in college, then going through ranger school, I realized that playing call of duty and those type of games look cool, but humping (sts) 69-106.9 lbs of shit is not fun. It’s exhausting. It’s not even that fun. I flew overhead of a lot of infantry guys while providing them air support in combat, heard the bullets flying in firefights, and I was glad I wasn’t doing it. As an officer, you do more administrative stuff and aren’t a trigger puller doing a lot of that kind of stuff, but you are certainly out there on patrol with them as a platoon leader or commander. It’s hot (or freezing), dirty, exhausting, and not for everyone. Infantry guys put flight packets in...flyers don’t out infantry packets in. I have some buddies who did the ranger regiment/special forces/delta force thing. They do cool stuff. Cool stuff is a relative term, and for every minute of cool stuff they have hours or months worth of misery.
As for the danger, I had one good buddy from college who took an RPG in the chest, a friend who stepped on an IED and died, a buddy who died in a vehicle rollover, a good buddy from college and ranger school who lost both legs and a hand from an IED, a classmate from college who got seriously burned over 95% of his body but managed to live, looks scary now, a usafa buddy who i went to air assault with who crossed into army infantry and got blown The fck up and permanently disfigured, and a few other serious injuries. I also lost about 10 friends in helicopter crashes. Pick your poison. It’s a dangerous business.