My experience was much like Steve's, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. For me it started out as a game - role playing. Then classes started. I made the ultimate mistake of validating out of half my freshman classes which made academics seriously difficult. With what I know now, there are several things I would have done differently, but the experiences, knowledge and discipline I learned there could never have been achieved anywhere else.
I too met many great leaders of our time (I worked the Bob Hope show, too) like Chappy James, Yeager, Risner, Ritchie, and so many more. I worked on programs that were leading edge technology. Flew gliders, Cesnas, and rode in fighters my friends back home could only dream about.
I learned quickly that athletic tables and the radio station would keep me sane and warm. I could actually eat a meal at the athletic tables and learned more about the unwritten rules than my peers. It only took me a year from the day I started at the Academy radio station as a technician till I was in charge. Since I ran the Radio station, I didn't have to freeze at the football games cause someone had to be at the station for the broadcast.
I had been a discjockey in high school so I helped design the Disco and ran that for 2 years, got the Academy to foot the bill on Class 2 licenses for all my radio operators and technicians, and even got a contract for the academy to get demo albums before they were released to the public.
Then there was my cadet car. My contemporaries back home were running around in hoopties and I had a brand new Jaguar XJS. My sponsor let me keep it in his garage and use his tools for maintenance and "upgrades." Tinkering with it kept me out of a lot of trouble when I was a Firstie (I was already a Centurion by the end of my Junior year). It was like the interim reward for surviving so far.
Sure there were hard times, but the ends justified the means. I was subject to strife, ridicule, and torture - and that was just the academics! Life was not easy. A great anecdote to summarize: My dad sent me a timely message my sophomore year. I had just returned to my room after a test I thought I failed; in walks the Superintendent, Lt Gen Ken Tallman, "I just talked to your Dad and he wanted me to remind you 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'" and he walked back out before I could come to attention. What college president pays personal visits to their students?