How did you feel when you signed your DD-214?

SPC Stephanie Oanes Sweet!

Lol. I can relate.

Playing "free bird" with some quality cush.

I know what you are saying... First, when you enlist, you swear in... and when you get out, no matter how much or how little time has gone by, you don't "unswear". So yes, soldier for life! I was single term, and I knew it wasn't a good fit for me, personality wise. I loved helping my people (as a personnel clerk), but hated playing political games with those with real issues, telling them that too bad, no one cared, and military needs came first. Because of course, I DID CARE. I thought it stank to high heaven to have to turn that person away when they needed help. As a retiree, yes. You definitely achieved a goal, and that's a wonderful thing. Its great that you are looking forward to life on the "outside" in the civilian sector after service. Congratulations, sir!

I felt like I was part of the Solution!

The same way I felt when we killed Bin Laden-I had a beer. 

Depends on which one. The last one was a bit depressing, since it meant the end of a long career and the unknown of the future.

MCPO Roger Collins - And that's natural, every time you enter a new chapter of your life. I remember feeling like that at high school graduation, the day I signed into the USAF, the day I signed out (though there was more relief and happiness there!), the day I got married, the day we had our first child, when the last kid graduated high school, when the call from Afghanistan, telling me that our younger daughter had been blown up by an IED and she was seriously injured, etc. You are stepping off the edge of the map, as it were, into the unknown, where "there be monsters".