Crippling self doubt! (aka starting college at 40!)

[Merlin]

If one could dedicate their full time to the BALS/BSBA route, how long does it typically take? 

I had originally planned to take the EM associates degree at my local community college and go the Associates > Bachelors > Masters route in case anything came up that prevented me from working as hard as I want. That way I would still have a degree. For example, I deployed to the USVI in October of 2017 and ended up being there for a year. We didn't have power or running water for 6+ months. Cell phone service was non existent and even today it's a pile of garbage. I know that life happens and I want to be realistic about that so I don't set myself up for failure. 

Is that inefficient or is there something that I'm not seeing that would be a big negative for doing that?

The only value in getting the AA first is if you need the AA credential for something work-related. Once you have your bachelors or masters it won't matter at all. Worst case it will slow you down and it will cost more.

If you really want an associates degree, you can work on an associates degree in parallel with the bachelors at TESU if you like, in the latter case it won't cost more or take more time. Typically the same courses that apply to the bachelor's can be used towards the AA. You'd just end up graduating with both at the same time instead of getting the AA first and then the bachelor's later.

Is a degree from TESU truly as "valuable" as from a brick & mortar school with a well known reputation in DC (I live 15 minutes outside of DC). I've read the spiel from the big 3 about how their degrees are the same but I don't know how that compares to real life.

There are plenty of TESU graduates that have gone onto greatness, including at least one senator. Typically unless a degree from an ivy league or prestigious school is needed for your job then it won't matter as long as the school is accredited. You'll want regional accreditation (which TESU has) if you want to get into a good masters program. So that should be fine.