What was the biggest sacrifice you had to make, or opportunity you had to pass up, in order to pursue your military career?

My 18 year marriage, along with about half my kids' lives so far.
Looking forward to the chapter with more of them and no more Army.
I wouldn't have changed much, because it has been my honor to serve. But it is my regret that my children had to pay for it.

Happiness and opportunity are very different things. You are in charge of your happiness at any moment or place. Throughout my military career I was usually happy and tried to reflect a positive attitude toward my work. It wasn't too hard for me. I was getting to do what I wanted to do, fly airplanes, at least some of the time for about 16 years. Opportunities are often beyond your control. They may exist suddenly or develop over time. I had opportunities to do jobs I would have never thought of when I graduated from college, such as being a magazine editor, thanks to my time in the Service. I also had opportunities to live in locations very different from where I grew up, Tulsa, OK. The most different, fun, and interesting, was Alaska. Perhaps the opportunity I passed up was to be a civilian commercial pilot. I had the experience and license necessary by the time I reached my 8th year of service. Had I chosen to make the jump then, my life would have been very different. Probably would have brought in a larger salary, but would have had the opportunity to be laid off on several occasions. The flying would have been much more mundane. Droning from city to city at 30,000 feet several times a week in a modern jetliner that was only a few years old. I made the decision to continue the challenge of bumping along 300 feet above the earth, using rudimentary navigation equipment, in an aircraft that had seen over 10 hard years of flying (including multiple tours in Vietnam), to locate what looked like a football field size drop zone, to airdrop troops or equipment.

I did the opposite. I turned down great opportunities, that were absolute career builders, at a different post in order to move to a post where my kids would be close to their grandparents. The goal is to retire here so that I don't have to move my kids again, even though I was definitely on track to become a SGM one day. It doesn't feel like a sacrifice, though.