'It got stupid' and the many other reasons troops chose to leave the military

I normally don’t brag but sometimes it is just hard to be humble. lol I did a two year command at Ft Riley. I think I was one of the coolest commanders ever! lol I first built a culture of values, standards, and expectations. Of course we focused on operations and training, but I expected the NCOs to run operations and take care of the soldiers. They did that and they were in the soldiers corner. I never had to step in except to help soldiers to go to OCS. Good stuff like that. That said, nobody knew exactly why I did things for the unit. It was to say thank you and infuse fun into their army careers.

I arranged helicopter rides. I grilled food after SGTs time. I gave dinner gift certificates to the NCOs to give to soldiers who were busting ass. We played football for Friday PT. The door prizes at the Christmas party started with a TV, boom box, DVD player and the prizes got progressively cheaper; but the point is they wanted to win the prizes. One prize was an autographed and signed picture of me with a 4 day pass in the back. A couple 3 mile runs I had hot chow and buses at the finish line. I did gate guard, funeral details, and spring cleanup with the unit.

This is a funny story. I was using the weed wacker during spring clean up and broke a car window. I told the young soldier to contact claims. A few days later I get a call from claims about a silly CPT who broke a car window during spring clean up. I said yes it was me. I could tell from her voice that this sounds stupid and crazy.

Needless to say our morale was high. It was so good that we did a week FTX in December in wintery conditions at zero degrees and the soldiers acted like they actually liked being out their with me and the NCOs. Nobody ETSed and they re-enlisted. So yeah I need to brag because I rarely do and I am 99% humble, but yes I was so effing cool as a commander. I think I just hit my quota of bragging for a year.

If there are any mistakes I am on the phone outside Ft Leavenworth commissary.

the war was over I left PACAF and ended up on a SAC base with 52's and missels, got fairly chicken shit and was a tough adjustment coming from PACAF. Made up my mind it was time to leave. Wasn't many years later the rif came in. Enjoyed my time in but glad I made the move, used my training in the power field and lived good without a bunch of college debt

SSG(P) (Join to see) I think it depends upon your MOS...I enjoyed my job; however, my physical injuries were my reason for requesting a medical discharge