Have you heard of veterans "re-entering" service after having a civilian career?

I got out as part of the major cutbacks following Desert Storm. There were a number of reasons for my decision. But primarily it was for family reasons. My brand new wife was honestly not going to enjoy being an Army wife at that point in her life. She was at the beginning of a pretty big upward shift in her career. We wanted to have a family and I determined I wanted to "be there" for my children.

I came back in as a PV2 in 2007 at the tender age of 40. I had missed the life for a number of years. The kids were in high school and looking toward their own future. And honestly, I think we were both a little burned out on our corporate civilian lives. I am very thankful that I was given the opportunity to come back in for the second go at this. It has been a heck of a lot more fun in my 40s than it was in my 20s.

I got out of the Army for 2 years to put myself through ROTC. I went to the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!) in 1998/1999 but did not get my age waiver approved in the 2 year deadline I gave them. I rejoined the Army just before losing a stripe. I tried to go back to my original Infantry MOS but since I already had BNCOC, they made me go back into the Air Cav and I went to Fort Campbell so I could go to Air Assault school.

I was active duty from 8/1983-7/1986. Have worked for DVA since 8/1989 and also re-enlisted into the VA National Guard in 4/2007 and deployed to Iraq 2008-2009. Still Employed by DVA.

Yes, I have. In fact I am one of those veterans who returned to active duty after spending 11 years in the civilian sector. It was and is my honor to have served with two different generations of soldiers. Each one had its distinctions but I am proudest of serving with the newest generation of soldiers. I was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division (Climb to Glory), and further assigned to the 4th BN. 31st Infantry Regiment (Pro Patria). these were the finest men I ever served with and am proud to call them brothers in arms.

I had the pull to re enter the military about a year after I got out. My exit from the military was messy to say the least. But I did feel that I wasn't finished with my time in uniform. So I dug through some paperwork and found I had a separation code of RE-3. A talk with a recruiter revealed the only thing worse than RE-3 code is RE-4. And it would have taken 14-15 months to get a waiver to re enter the military. I miss the military and would like to go back. But not to the extent where I could be spinning my wheels for a year on a maybe.

SPC (Join to see) Yes. I joined the United States Marine Corps out of high school. After my six year enlistment, I joined the police where I worked for 12 years until enlisting in the Army where I completed my career.

I actually met a number of other Army CID Special Agents who did the same exact thing. Most with many years less break than I.

Thank you,

what are the chances of a 63 year old retiree going back on active duty and to iraq??

Pretty Common in the Cryptologic Community while I was in. I don't know why.

I did it. I was out for about 16 years before coming back in in 2007. I will tell you, that for me, it has always been challenging. I will give you a few things that I have had issues with. First, I am old. Older than most everyone in my unit, including my Command. So having personal relationships is challenging since I really don't have a lot in common with my peer group. I have been fortunate (at least in my last two duty stations) because I was able to connect with people who are my age, but certainly not my same rank. Two of my good friends are both SGMs. One just retired and the other will be PCSing to Ft. Benning soon. I have always been able to differentiate between duty hours and off duty hours.

I spent six year on Acitve Duty, then went to the Reserves for 12 years while working as a civilian for the rest of the month. After that, I went back to Active Duty. Does that count?