And...  

You had an Army retirement to make up for crappy pay... so OF COURSE life was good.  And you clearly did EMS before all the modern stupidity.  

The OP is clearly a young guy.  When he gets to 40 and realizes he'll be flying non-stop until 65 and still have little to show to be prepared for retirement where he can afford to invest time and money into his grandkids he'll be singing a different tune.  

I too was super optimistic about how great life was as a pilot in my 20's and 30's.  Then my kids reached their teen years and I finally realized just how very little I had advanced financially (still making $70-80K after 20 year flying career) and it all dawned on me how stupid "but look at how cool my job is" mentality is. 

Moved onto non-flying gig and VERY happy I transitioned to better pay and quality of life.  

For the military retirees, the ones with family that can manage your being away while you fly cool AND good paying gigs, and for those who had other investment from family or otherwise to start their career off with a better financial footing somehow to be able to handle such a crappy paying profession... the best to you.