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

I loaded my2 Alice packs on my motorcycle and rode 8 hours from Bragg to Georgia. I stayed with my buddy and his we wife and started looking for work. Then had to learn about the civilian bullshit that my platoon Sgt talked about when he got out 10 years earlier.

I came home on emergency leave and since I was down to less than 30 days left on my enlistment I went to Fort Sam Houston, Texas and got my discharge papers. My dad passed 20 days later. I worked at the VA for awhile and then got a job in the scrap metal business and bounced around a lot till I met my wife Barbara. We now have a small bookkeeping business we run from home. You have to remember times were different back then no body liked Veterans as I was discharged in August of 74.

Enrolled/started college then started the exhaustive job search!

I got a menial job so i could quit

I left Ft. Campbell on a Friday, and started a job on Monday. Two weeks later I was in school. In retrospect, I should have taken some time off. Adjusting to civilian life was a lot harder than I expected it would be.

I worked on my online Master’s program as well as my e-commerce side business, and landed a job with U.S. Customs & Border Protection. I felt very free and excited about the future. This was October 2006, and I was 31 y/o at the time.

I planned my retirement when I got out. Had about 100 days of leave plus 30 days of tidy as I was overseas. When my orders finely arrived there was an additional 30 days included
Spent four months on full pay and allowances got a job and never looked back

I went back packing for a month, got myself "right" with the world, then enrolled in school and went to work. I already had a job lined up, and was enrolled in school . . . and was lucky enough to have that month available to me after seperation.

After I cleaned up all the spit off me and washed the blood of my hands at the airport where we landed, I faced a twenty mile hike home because my "best friend" wouldn't come pick me up at the airport because they were calling us baby killers and such and he didn't want to be seen there.

I returned to my old job as a rifle, pistol, and shotgun instructor at a local rec center where we ran high school competetive shooting matches. Basically that's how my recruiter was able to find me for a job the Army had for me after I'd gotten in trouble at school and wasn't able to attend anymore.

I also finished up my high school education by attending night school, fell out every morning at 0300hrs, squared everything away and began my day.

Three weeks later in the middle of the night, my mother and step-father came into my room and politely asked me to leave their home with just my clothes and personal belongings. They were afraid of what I had been taught and seen in the military and were afraid that I would harm them after all the years of abuse they both put me through.

I packed up all my clothes and threw everything I owned into my 1973 Pontiac Grand Prix and lived under a bridge for the next few months. Didn't know anything at the time about PTSD, just knew I had changed and my country changed too. I still want my old America back even now....

I walked all over NYC looking for a job. I was completely out of it; leaving the Army confused me. I thought I was going into the kingdom of heaven and leaving the other place. I was wrong. I should have re-enlisted. Hindsight 20/20.