What did you do in the days and weeks afterward when you left the service?

After my retirement ceremony, I went halibut and ling cod fishing for the weekend. Then after about a month, my wife asked me if I was planning to get a job or was I planning to just "drink and fish". I asked her if "that" was an option and she said an adamant "No"! So I called a friend and long time mentor who was hiring near where I lived. Within a week, I was employed as a contractor supporting a DoD program. Three and a half years later I converted to a government civilian position. I guess if you count it all up, I have been serving my country since I was 17 years old. 34 years and counting. I intend to continue serving my country until I retire.

I had 90 days of Terminal. I went to Base Education twice a week and took every CLEP, DSST, and Excelsior exam I could. I knocked out about 80~ college credits before I started my new job as a government contractor.

I grew my hair out to about 3.5" which was the longest it had been in 8 years. And just decompressed.

Took 1 day off and went to work for my private sector employer. Never looked back.

I was in the police academy

I was in Okinawa, Japan when I retired. I came back to the United States to finish out processing at Camp Pendleton, CA. That took about 7 days. After that, I spent 45 days at my father's house selling stuff I had in storage, applying for and receiving my 90 day visa for Thailand, VA exam for disability, and visiting family that I had not seen since before leaving for Japan. As soon as I received my notification of disability from the VA, I boarded a plane for Thailand. Once there, I found a house to rent, outfitted said house, got married, applied for and received the Marriage Visa, bought a motorcycle, and finally bought a car. Once I was settled, I started tutoring and became the handyman for the neighborhood. All of the above paragraph was done in 3 months!

Not too stressful financially, I had made sure that I was debt free before retiring, and had saved some money. It was very stressful mentally, however. The not knowing if my Marriage Visa would be approved because of some paperwork SNAFU. Trying to learn some Thai. A language so tonal that you can say a word 3 different ways and it means something different each time. I can now understand more than I can speak. Finally, the BIG step, getting married for the first time ever. The only way I kept sane through it all was with the support of my wife and my father-in-law.

I met a pretty girl 11 days before I went on terminal leave.... I ended up marrying her 4 months later, staying in Massachusetts another year and a half, and have been happily married to her for 29+ years....... Meeting, and marrying her was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I exited active duty at Fort Hood and did community theater while I looked for a job. My first job was as a Sales Rep at KKIK Radio - the start of my sales career.

When I started terminal leave I took two weeks off then started working.

I went to HELL, I mean the VA

Hey Col, I moved to San Antonio (still here) and remodeled the house I bought when I came back from Japan (1956). I drew unemployment at the time. My father-i-law retired the same time so he helped me paint. I put in wall to wall carpet, central air and bought new stove, washer & dryer and Refrigerator. House payment was $85.00!! Did not go to work until my unemployment ran out.