Retirees - When did you know it was time to hang up the uniform?

When it appeared that I was surrounded by my grandchildren

When young military personnel started to lack personal motivation and sense of obligation. As I observed the new "norm" slowly spread among the ranks, I knew that my time was up. Military life is synonymous with discipline, dedication, sacrifice and hardship, but sadly, today's youth rarely subscribe to this code.

I'm retiring because I didn't make the list. Along with that, I'm just getting to the point that it's just getting to be too much. On top of that, I've missed so much of my family that it's time for me to give back to them. I always said that my family would let me know when it's time to hang it up......now it's time. July 2015.

I finally got tired of senior leadership saying and doing things that they couldn't logically support. Better yet, they answered in double talk and expected people to accept that answer. I once attended a briefing by a colonel from the Air
Force personnel center who was asked why we had "banked" pilots while we were drawing down in other career fields. Essentially, we had people who were trained as pilots but were filling other positions in non-flying units. The colonel answered that we didn't have too many pilots. We had a shortage of cockpits. Another time, I attended a meeting of my base's first sergeants and the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. He got into a discussion about the Senior and Chief Master Sergeant promotions and spouted the oft-repeated statement that we needed to tell our people to study for the written test because it was so important for promotion to those ranks. I simply asked if the test was so important, why did it comprise so little of the total score ( I think it was about 12% of the possible total at that time.) I gave him an example of a person who scored a 46 (out of 100) on the written test and was promoted, while others scored much higher, but weren't selected. The Chief's answer was that I was doing a disservice to my troops if I pointed that out. It's math, Chief. I think most of them had already figured that out on their own. Those are but two examples of the many B.S. statements I encountered which pointed me to the door.

Sir,

When my last assignment was much less interesting than my first and the next one looked worse.  I stopped growing and started ossifying so it was time to go. Yes that's naive, the transition is tough but now I'm two years on the other side I'm glad I did it.  Reason two was when all the fog and friction overwhelmed motivation.  Never let yourself become one of the bitter old staff guys too afraid to move on. 

I have been having less and less fun over the last 3-4 years.... I am now at 18 years, tried to TERA, but they feel I am not eligible....so 2 to go...and I will be GONE.  When you wake up not wanting to go in, it is time to think about punching out.  I have had a GREAT run, but time to try new.

I did after a year long stint in Egypt with the M.F.O as a support transport. I was in a spiral that continue to my next duty station. I was found to have nerve damage. You like what you are doing and want to continue but your body doesn't follow your heart.