Actually the bottom two are general of what I was going to start asking! I was wondering how the program is and what are your commitments to it. Also the job opportunities. If I were to leave after however many years of service I commit, what kind of jobs can I get?
The bottom line is this: you will never get rich flying helicopters. Your intelligence and talent will be better used elsewhere in the civilian world. There will always be people with more hours who are willing to fly for less money. Unless you want to take a job that will take you far from your family (fighting forest fires, helicopter logging, or offshore oil rig flying), you won't find much good work in the helicopter industry beyond the military.
The commitment, despite some poor info floating around, is 6 years from the time you finish your aircraft course. In years past, it was 6 years from the end of BCS nights. That flight school curriculum is gone, having been replaced by various forms of the Flight School XXI model. Now, the end of your aircraft course is the beginning of your ADSO.
Flight school is, by design, anywhere from 13 to 18 months based on your airframe. However, lately it's quite backlogged, especially for gun pilots (OH-58D and AH-64D). Primary, the intial flying course, is also backlogged. A few 2009 USMA grads I know signed in to Fort Rucker in July '09 and didn't fly their first hour until March '10. However, as far as you're concerned, that's not too much of a worry, as you wouldn't see Fort Rucker for at least 6 years from now. But currently, LTs are spending over 2 years at flight school, and many currently there will miss the current conflicts, at least at they exist now.
As far as career progression, you'll follow a similar progression to the other MFE branches (if you didn't know, there's no "combat arms" anymore, as it has been replaced by MFE: Maneuver, Fires, and Effects). However, there are no Executive Officer slots in aviation, which works to keep you on par time-wise with LTs from other branches. Where an infantry LT would be a Platoon Leader, then XO, and then a staff officer, you will get to the big Army later and follow the same path, minus XO time.
The type of career you have will depend very much on your airframe and duty station. I am naturally biased toward gun/scout airframes, as that is where my experience lies in "regular Army." The current conflicts have resulted in beaucoup flight hours for all the folks in the gun/scout communties, but less so for UH/CH pilots. As a lieutenant, I amassed approximately 1400 flight hours, which used to take about 9 or 10 years to accomplish. As the conflicts subside, so will the flight hour opportunities.
It's hard for me to know where you want the discussion to go without a few more details.
What's your ultimate goal?
What do you see yourself doing in a helicopter?