The Mysterious Bank Account Senior Enlisted Military Members Don’t Know They Have

Most all of my senior enlisted friends had jobs waiting when they retired. Some even went back to their AF jobs as a civilian.
When I was passed over for O-5 and was goven an early retirement, I was contacted by the anesthesia group downtown. They were trying to find out if my partner and I could help out in their OR on Wednesdays. We had worked downtown doing our patients while our OR was undergoing revisions, so we had a working relationship with them previously.
I explained why we couldn’t and also let them know I would be retiring in 6 months. The senior partner told me to get a résumé over to the office and to not accept a job offer until I talked to him. I called my wife and let her know I had a job when I retired.

I was standing in line to get a cup of coffee at a commander conference in Colorado Springs. There was a headhunter from Intel behind me in line. We got to visiting and he asked me what my future plans were. I told him that I was thinking of retiring from the Army but wasn’t in a hurry. He asked if I had a resume. I had a floppy disk that had a resume and asked him if I could use his laptop to update my resume. I gave him the updated resume and went on about my business. Two weeks later I was called for an interview. I went to the interview and by the time I had returned to my office at Ft. Carson I was hired. I took a month to clear post and get my affairs in order.

My Bank Account was called the "GI Bill". As soon as I retired, I enrolled as an undergrad at the University of South Carolina. Had overloads every semester including summers. Received my Bachelor and immediately enrolled in a Master's program. I had 48 months of benefits and it took me 50 months to get both the Bachelor and Masters Degrees. Before I finished my Masters, I had a job with Texaco.