Getting out

[Tippster]

What are some reasons you guys got out? How long were you in/when did you get out?

[Flounder]

Clinton era "right sizing" I was not the right size. 6 years 7 days.

[Grendel]

Yup, Clinton draw down made it not so much fun to be in.

[Grendel]

US Navy Submariner veteran of 11 years (discharged Jul 1995), I got out after I got physically disqualified for Submarine Duty. They offered to let me go to the surface fleet but my last year on limited duty I worked for Fleet Training Center Norfolk and really could not get used to the mickey mouse rank superiority BS associated with the Surface community so I took option 2 disability discharge. It was also at the height of the Base Closings and early retirements push. I had been up for Chief (E7) and was essentially waiting on someone to die or retire to advance since 1992 so was kind of disillusioned on that point. I could have fought to get reinstated as a submariner (Squadron Surgeon in Norfolk was disqualifying quite a few of us for BS reasons) then there was being in a hold pattern for my anchor and to top it off I was a geographic bachelor as my new wife's ex-husband was not letting her move my stepdaughter out of state. So I called it quits and became a Field Engineer. There are times I regret not finishing to at least 20 years and even worked on a waiver to go back in in the early 2000s but I got a lot of pressure to not sign back up by my family. Suppose I could have done reserves or maybe national guard to finish my time but that didn't interest me as being active.

[Deltasteve]

A lot of reasons. I felt like the money we were spending wasn't smart; I was a pilot who was only flying 48 hours a year with a waiver saying that we didn't have the money to have me meet my minimums. They changed the requirements on a full time job to give it to someone who was in the good ol' boys club, even though myself and two others were clearly much better qualified for it. Despite a lack of flying time they kept trying to get me to come in more and more (this was Guard) and do mission planning, etc despite it being normal work hours. I mostly came to the realization that I was working about 100 days a year for $17k, got a promotion at my normal job for more than that and my contract was already over (officer) so I saw myself out. I miss the flying but I do not miss the military at all.

[Ironnerd]

I turned down promotion, so I could not stay.
It was time to go though. I loved my job and my employer, but my boss was [drain tap] sucking [sexual congress] bag.

[Mr. Hick]

The year was 2008 and I could see that the War on Terror would be endless. I didn't want to spend my entire 20 year career deploying... and I didn't feel the need to roll the dice with my life any more. See ya later, Uncle Sugar.

[Ego10Baller]

Got badly injured on a jump and was medically retired. Happy to be alive after that one and can't say that I'm upset about being out

[Mr. Hick]

Break your back? Pop a testicle? Compound fracture of a Femur? Have someone elses combat equipment separate your shoulder after they jettisoned it because they were cherry and no-one explained it to them? land on the EFFING heavy drop? I've seen a lot. I was glad I never got seriously hurt. Only been in the trees once, but luckily made it all the way to the ground.

[Ego10Baller]

I had a riser/shoulder strap slip down a bit during an in-flight rig (didn’t realize it at the time) by the jump master after some equipment got caught on the netting on the C-130 when I sat down and he came over and ‘corrected’ the issue. It ended up yanking my arm up once the chute deployed. Lost my bicep and most of a couple of nerves in the arm but still have the use of the one that allows me to move it so that was the upside.

Yeah you’ve definitely jumped more than me. The above happened on my 8th (and that includes airborne school). Unfortunately, the 82nd, in my experience, was more concerned about getting us on the bird than off the bird safely for this particular JRTC exercise. Im glad to hear that you made it through ok.

[Mr. Hick]

Yikes. Unfortunately I did have a lot more jumps than you. I was "non-divisional airborne asset" over with the 20th ENG. While the 82nd was away they were putting every ass in a chute so the NG pilots could keep the C-130's moving through pope air field. I was also lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time doing experimental jumps with the T-10 replacements (being called X-11's at the time) although I never saw them fielded. I too recall the atmosphere that you explained though. it was another reason to see myself out the door. Hopefully you are "Well adjusted" with your arm man.

[honculada]

I got tired of all the bs and punched out at 12 years. I don't regret getting out all but I still with the military on a daily basis as a contractor.

[Tracker]

the short answer;

"PCS'd to a new base and realized it wasn't the base that was the problem, it was the people"

the longer explanation
i actually, and voluntarily, got out early (Dec 2000, to May of 04)

i enlisted pre sept 11th, for 6 years.. first duty station was Cannon AFB, and right when i was starting to build a rep as a good mechanic, i got PCS'd to japan and had to start all over again, and i realized that the chant of "this base sucks" was universal, and it didn't matter where you were, you were always gonna be surrounded by miserable MF-ers who have never been ANYWHERE but still think they are in the worst place the AF has to offer...

i had resigned myself to apply for cross training the day i was eligible.. (366 days short of re-enlistment) but then "force shaping" happened, they gave 16,000 people a free out. like literally "take this paper to your commander, if they sign it, have a nice life"

i still had a year left before i was eligible to apply for CT, and was not happy..
there are compounding factors to all of that... i enlisted very young, and i have a tendency to understand things a lot faster than a lot of my fellow trainees, so my confidence was often mistaken for arrogance, and i was too young to figure out that's what the problem everyone had with me was.
i actually had guys i was in tech school with who tried to get me cycled back a week because they didnt want me around, and i wish it was just one guy.. it was the majority of my class.. and the only reason i didn't was because i was doing better than they were and the instructor knew that "he's better at this than you are, and you're a lot more likely to get recycled than he is"
of course i then proceeded to get assigned to the exact same squadron as the guy who tried to stage this, so that was always awkward..

i would have taken the option to cross train into one of the critically manned fields (the ones that were restricted from force shaping) but that wasnt a option.. my options were get out, or go guard. my states ANG is a C-130 squadron.. and i really didn't want to learn heavies, so in May of 04, i got my paper signed and took all of my training and walked, they didn't seem to mind the idea of spending all that money to train up a new me instead of re-utilizing someone who just didnt fit..

it was touch and go for a bit, and i definitely wondered if i had made a mistake.. but with some luck, i was able to score some really good jobs, and i'm sure my AF time is a nice carrot for the HR department "we have X veterans employed"

reflecting, there are a lot of things that i wish i could have done differently, the biggest lesson i learned in all of this..

"the ASVAB is an intelligence test, if you score high, take a job that requires a high score, if you score low, take a low scoring job.. take the highest job your qualified for"

Its the easiest way to end up around "people like you", i scored really high, and took a job that required a low score.. and i really do feel that was a major factor in why i didn't enjoy my time in, because i couldn't relate to anyone.. i didnt do the things in HS that the bulk of the guys i was around did (like live in auto-shop class), i suspect if i had taken a more specialized job i would have been a lot happier, and probably would have retired 6 months ago..

[FullContactUSA]

'This base sucks' is universal, but cannon is always near the top of the list. Lol. Your tone screams viper keeper, were you a 16 crew chief?

[Tracker]

yes actually.

Originally crewed a bus, was in phase with it when they rent back to AMU's and made phase EMS, I was offered the opportunity to stay.
misawa was back on the line, but being a phase trained 5-level without intakes or baby x's made me in the same place as the 3 level's and they had been there longer

[ryan]

Woke up one day partway through my fifth deployment to discover I had some gnarly asthma. This is likely attributable to burn pit exposure.

The role I was in was a V coded role, and I needed all 1s on my PULHES. I was in my reup window and was told my only option would be a desk job (more or less) for the duration of my mil career, so I opted to just get out. I was in for nearly nine years.

In the end, I wound up working at a silicon valley tech company, meeting the love of my life, and living in a place with perfect weather. I think it all worked out.

[wunderbarsafari]

Trips to Mesopotamia got old. Too hot, too many sharp metal things in the air.

[Dirty11]

I loved my time in the Infantry. I was mech for 7 years during the surge in Iraq. On my second climb to E-5 I was injured stateside, after several surgeries I was gifted the choice of reclass to a less intense Mos and sit on a permanent dead man profile, or take a medical retirement. I took the money and ran. I've been a retired E-4 since 2012.

[tetsu_no_usagi]

After 15 years of being in the Army Guard, I hung it up. I got in, worked ADOS for a few months backfilling one of our guys who got grabbed by another unit for a deployment, then got my own deployment, came back to a full time dual status Tech job which turned almost immediately into an AGR job (always show up for job interviews, I got AGR as I was the only one to show, and AGR jobs were always hard to get), worked that for 10 years. I tried going Warrant, but just before the entry board, I had to take my mom in as she was dying from Parkinson's and I couldn't even go to my last two weeks of Advanced Leader Course, much less the multiple months of WOCS. That went on for 3 years and trying to get a lateral transfer to work closer to home but never quite making it (good ole boy network didn't want to be bothered, or had someone else they wanted to promote instead of just moving me). She finally passed, but my knees had given out in the meantime and you can't go Warrant if you're broken. They want experienced NCOs, but not too experienced as we're all broken after a while. Basically the death knell of my Army career, I got pissed I couldn't go Warrant and they wouldn't move me closer to home, so I left AGR ("no one leaves the AGR program!" they said in disbelief, but I sure did). Only slot they could find me at my rank was 3 hours away, barely still in state. A little over a year there, and while they were good folks at that unit, I just couldn't see myself sticking around any longer, so when my ETS date came up, I simply did not reenlist.

Funny thing is, I'm trying to get back in. Just need 5 more years to get a retirement of any kind - if I had never been AGR, I would have gotten a partial retirement with my 15 years, but because of AGR, I have too many retirement points so it's 20 or nothing. And since I won't have 20 years active (would need 8 more years on active to get 20 active years), the retirement pay won't start until I'm 67. But at least it would be something above and beyond what I have squirreled away in the TSP. Yeah, trying to get back into shape to get back in, and I don't care what rank it is or even what MOS, as long as it's local and can take my profile. Sham Shield Mafia second time around? I'm down for that.