CLazyR,
Let me join in those that have offered their appreciation for your decision to serve our great nation. I was army, and had the good (and bad) fortune to serve as a general's aide de camp as a 1LT. From there I was exposed to all of the services, including their enlisted, warrant officers, and commissioned officers. All have positives and negatives. If I wanted to go in as a pilot, and I didn't have aspirations for a 4-year degree, as some have already pointed out, warrant officer in the army is the way to go (they also fly a LOT more than the aviation commissioned officers). As far as marine vs. army, the biggest difference I saw was the amount of training distractions and mission focus (I was infantry--a.k.a. "grunt"). The marines were protected from some of the BS police actions we had to support in the army during the clinton years, and were able to pass off a lot of the mundane base support ops to their navy brethren. As far as training goes, I'm sure the Army, Navy, and Air Force probably all outshine the Marine corps in skilled labor training, because they are more self-sufficient from a strategic standpoint. However, from an operational standpoint, the Marines probably get my vote from a combat arms perspective, because as I said before, they have a more well-defined mission, and the department of the navy frowns on anyone taking them away from that--otherwise they would start losing the argument that the marine corps should be funded separately by congress (which they are).
I know that probably doesn't do anything but confuse you more, but let me add this. Don't discount the value of leadership. Both the Army and the Marine Corps to a great job of training one and even two levels up from whatever your job is at any given time. Nothing beats being at the tip of the spear, and you'll find that in most cases, the best leaders are the combat arms leaders. My advice would be to get a ranger contract in the army if you really want to work with a well-oiled machine and learn how to lead. That's a skill that you can't learn as well anywhere else but the Army and Marine Corps. Best of luck, and God bless.
Deck