"Bill Silvey" wrote

I could see potentially horrible things happening to that poor kid's arm if
he ever had to eject at high speeds...

Not many regular humans fare well :-)

I know of two cases where pilots who ejected and were mangled enough to
take years of surgery and made it back into the fighter cockpit.

The difference there being that the injured was already trained, but I can't
see having a pin or rod making one disabled, unless they lost strength or
motion, which is often the case, as the rod and pins usually replace the
part of the bone that is missing, or too mangled to fuse back together.

I would probably encourage the youth in JROTC, but not pin his hopes on
one career at this stage.