Posted on Nov 30, 2013
Retirees - When did you know it was time to hang up the uniform?
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Whether the choice was yours, your spouse's/family's, medical condition or you ran into one of the military's service length requirements, when did you know it was time to hang the uniform up for the last time?
Thousands of service members retire each year...your responses may impact their decisions.
Note: Keeping your responses short will allow for more views/responses.
Thousands of service members retire each year...your responses may impact their decisions.
Note: Keeping your responses short will allow for more views/responses.
Posted in these groups: 
Retirement
Retirement
Posted 12 y ago
Responses: 89
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Most of the people that I have seen called it "quits" and retire is when they found that they involuntarily began to resist changes made by the senior leadership of that particular branch of service, whether internally or through action. Something deep in them started to manifest and in their subconsciousness and they discovered that enough was enough.
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We were facing cutbacks and a couple of NCO's below me were looking at early non-voluntary discharge. I had had my time in the sun and was ready to move on as I was no longer finding joy and found it more and more difficult to boot up in the morning. By my retiring it allowed the the two younger soldiers to move up and finish their distinguished careers. I don't regret my decision at all as there will always be a time when one should move on.
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For me it was much like most previous responses in several different factors. The first was the fact that the job quit being fun for me. I quickly realized when I went from being a military police squad leader to sitting behind a desk as an operations sergeant back to being a platoon sergeant and then a Provost Marshal NCOIC, that I did not care for the administrative function and "office politics" that came with the staff position. I felt more at home pushing troops as a squad leader and platoon sergeant. With that came the second factor in which political correctness and the touchy feeling training that big Army was implementing. Much of the reason that this training was and is being mandated is a knee jerk reaction towards many of the younger kids coming in the military now in their inability to cope with adversity or hardships that the military can impose. It simply burnt me out, but at the same time pointing me in that direction of retiring which was one of the best decisions I ever made. No regrets.
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Army was temporarily without a mission (end of USSR) and wasn't handling it well in my view. Stopped being fun.
As I aged, I also found it increasingly difficult to physically keep up with my soldiers. Mid forties. Pass PT tests with mediocre scores just fine. But that took dedication and work beyond daily PT, and the time, energy, and will to keep it up was drying up (burn out?).
Without saying junior officers were getting worse, their confidence level (not competence) seemed to be dropping. Many seemed to kind of live in fear for their careers all the time and one of my last ones took as much of my time as any of my troops.
Just became harder and harder to meet my expectations for myself. Hate to admit that.
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When I was directed to the med board by HRC. The current operating environment is to draw
down several thousand troops, so anyone with a medical condition is susceptible
to being discharged. Branch transfers to
retain Officers with extensive experience and training are almost non-existent,
even when only having a condition incompatible with your present branch but
acceptable for most other ones. Retirement
or separation is a decision being made for many of us - not just for the
overweight, undisciplined, and troubled Soldiers always being mentioned on
message boards or in the general media.
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It was a combination of things, it wasn't that one thing and bam!
First, the military is only 1 Chapter in your book and like I always said "You can't stay in the military forever, you must plan your exit" My favorite saying was "LAA", Life after Army, what do you plan on doing? So for me, I became debt free and I didn't buy a new car or house exiting the Army.
Two, I Became All I Could be at the Time, medical problems.
Three, I had that inner feeling, time to move on although I loved being an Army Career Counselor.
Four, My wife and I wanted to settle and my parents were not getting any younger, plus we had a young child.
Bottom-line, Planning made the transition easier, but you can't plan 1 month out and expect it to be just fine. If you haven't started planning, then start now.
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The decision was made for me when I was not selected for the MSG promotion list off the 2011 board, was at 24 at the time and that was my last chance to stay longer than the 26 I retired at. For me it was more about still doing something I loved, training Soldiers, than the actual promotion, I wasn't ready to go...but in this day and age of a downsizing Army, I witnessed a trend of promotions, at least within the Armor community, where people that were "young" and less experienced were the ones being selected, "more bang for the promotion buck", and old-timers like myself were passed over. I ended my career as a Senior Platoon Trainer(Sr Instructor) in the Armor School teaching Armor BOLC, I was still having fun at what I was doing, training future PLs, and honestly hated to see it end. All I can say is be prepared for that day...sorry my response wasn't brief, mea culpa......
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At the 18 year mark, I started thinking of retirement...promotions had slowed down because of reductions in the services, this was when Clinton was president. I also couldn't deal with all the PC business that was going on. Instead of just being a good NCO the AF decided that all NCO's needed to be politically correct. This was true even at the local level. After a TDY to JTF-Bravo and then returning to my home base, I learned that I was being reassigned within the unit. The politics were just to much. I was finally reassigned as the Superintendent of Weapons System Security for the final 15 months. I was asked by some rnking officers to stay in but once I had made up my mind, no going baCK
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I actually had a business opportunity waiting for me on the outside, so I was chafing to tackle it and see what I could create. I was commissioned well after the halfway point of a traditional 20-year career so I took the strategic move of making sure I had 10 commissioned years in first, then it was time to take my leave. I loved my tenure in the service but it was time to move on.
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For me it was a couple of factors: 1. DoD/DA getting more and more Regulatory 2. Seemed like everywhere you turned you heard of another way that Big Army is downsizing and separating Soldiers (ok, now that the war is over...go home) 3. The de-valuation of your job. 4. You find yourself disagreeing with new policies and proceedures. 5. Your job is no longer any FUN. 6. Your bad days start outnumbering the good ones.....Don't get me wrong...the majority my career was quite good...but your tolerance for bull@%$ goes to Zero when you have your Retirement Orders in hand...I was just very happy to be part of the 17% of all military members that actually retire from military service..because the odds are generally not in your favor...people don't look out after you like they used to...and it only takes a sneeze for you to get separated....enough of my banter....
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