Yesterday was my 9,514th, and final, day on active duty--now with Bovine Recovery Team story Pg 5

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Yesterday was my 9,514th, and final, day on active duty--now with Bovine Recovery Team story Pg 5 (Page 1 of 6)

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:09:13 AM EDT

Yes, that includes leap days. 26 years, 17 days of wearing USAF blue.

I came on active duty on the 14th of August, 1989.

Since then, I’ve had 25 different jobs at 15 different locations, only three of which were both above ground AND had windows.

I've served under 12 USAF Chief of Staffs, 9 Secretaries of Defense, and five presidents, with my commission signed by a sixth (All Hail Renaldus Magnus!).

I’ve done 27 promotions, nine reenlistments, 31 commissionings, one retirement, and one court martial (not mine),

I've spent 279 days on nuclear alert, 300-ish days on space operations crew, 357 days deployed to Afghanistan, and served a three-year sentence at the Pentagon with no time off for good behavior.

I’ve been a crew commander, flight commander, detachment commander, instructor, evaluator, educator, staff officer, operations officer, and snack bar officer.

In my time in the Air Force, I’ve learned that at 30 below, a boiling hot cup of coffee thrown in the air will freeze before it hits the ground, I’ve had lunch with the Afghan Army Chief of the General Staff, I’ve visited some of the biggest nuclear weapons facilities in the country, I’ve had to figure out the best way to get a dead cow out of a sewage lagoon, and I spent one really fun Christmas Eve answering the phones for the annual NORAD Tracks Santa event, earning the undying gratitude of parents by telling their kids they had to go to bed RIGHT NOW or he’d pass them by.

And I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Except for the Pentagon tour.

The really funny thing is I never planned on making it a career—it just happened that every time I was wondering what the next step was, the Air Force promoted me and sent us off to another cool assignment in a great place that made it worth sticking around. So, here I am, a quarter century later, a lot more grey hair and a lot lower PT test scores than when I started, but MAN, was it a fun ride.

Except for the Pentagon tour.

Anyway, I’ve had a great run, but it’s time for someone else to sign for the alert.

Limaxray, Lt Col, USAF, and as of today, (Ret).

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:11:03 AM EDT

[#1]

That's a lot of days. Congrats and thanks for your service.

Enjoy retirement.

You spent more time in the military than I've been alive

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:12:28 AM EDT

[#2]

Congratulations on your retirement,Sir!!! enjoy it!! you've earned it!!!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:12:29 AM EDT

[#3]

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:13:20 AM EDT

[#4]

Thank you for your service.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:14:08 AM EDT

[#5]

Enjoy your retirement, and thank you for your service!!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:14:45 AM EDT

[#6]

Thank you for your service, and enjoy your well earned retirement

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:15:04 AM EDT

[#7]

Congrats. Treat yourself to something nice.

Felt strange to me, at first, when I retired but I got in the civ groove pretty quick. A buddy just retired lat year at 30 and took a year off to decompress. He's just now getting back in the game, but on his own terms.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:17:18 AM EDT

[#8]

Congratulations and thank you for your service!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:17:41 AM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
Thank you for your service, and enjoy your well earned retirement

View Quote

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:18:38 AM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
Congrats. Treat yourself to something nice.

Felt strange to me, at first, when I retired but I got in the civ groove pretty quick. A buddy just retired lat year at 30 and took a year off to decompress. He's just now getting back in the game, but on his own terms.

View Quote

Funny story, that "civilian groove" thing. No idea what you're talking about.

I took six weeks off during terminal leave, did the whole beard and no haircut thing. Hung around the house and harassed the wife.

Three weeks ago I shaved it all off, put my blues back on, and went back to work...as an AFJROTC instructor.

So not only am I still doing the USAF thing, I had my first day of high school....again.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:21:23 AM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:

Enjoy your retirement, and thank you for your service!!

View Quote

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:22:28 AM EDT

[#12]

Congratulations and thank you for your service.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:22:36 AM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:

Funny story, that "civilian groove" thing. No idea what you're talking about.

I took six weeks off during terminal leave, did the whole beard and no haircut thing. Hung around the house and harassed the wife.

Three weeks ago I shaved it all off, put my blues back on, and went back to work...as an AFJROTC instructor.

So not only am I still doing the USAF thing, I had my first day of high school....again.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Congrats. Treat yourself to something nice.

Felt strange to me, at first, when I retired but I got in the civ groove pretty quick. A buddy just retired lat year at 30 and took a year off to decompress. He's just now getting back in the game, but on his own terms.

Funny story, that "civilian groove" thing. No idea what you're talking about.

I took six weeks off during terminal leave, did the whole beard and no haircut thing. Hung around the house and harassed the wife.

Three weeks ago I shaved it all off, put my blues back on, and went back to work...as an AFJROTC instructor.

So not only am I still doing the USAF thing, I had my first day of high school....again.

Still wearing a uniform and having to put up with kids? That doesn't sound like retirement

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:23:49 AM EDT

[#14]

Thank you for your service sir, and for not dropping that nuke

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:25:54 AM EDT

[#15]

Congrats!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:26:51 AM EDT

[#16]

Thank you for your service. I was born at Vandenberg AFB while my Father was working on Minuteman in the early '60s.
My dad also retired as a Lt. Col.
Stickers on my dad's shooting box.

Untitled by John, on Flickr

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:26:54 AM EDT

[#17]

26 yrs, 17 days, you retire and immediately get a job in the uniform again?

Lifer

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:29:20 AM EDT

[#18]

Congrats on your retirement!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:30:38 AM EDT

[#19]

Thank you for your service. Enjoy your retirement.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:35:58 AM EDT

[#20]

Congratulations on a great career and thanks for your service! Enjoy your new life...

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:41:00 AM EDT

[#21]

Thank you for your service, Sir!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:41:15 AM EDT

[#22]

The wife's uncle is a retired army lt. Col. And he is doing the same for a jrotc in Cheyenne.

Congrats, Sir.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:43:01 AM EDT

[#23]

Like others have already said, congrats and thank you for serving your country

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:43:30 AM EDT

[#24]

Thank you for your service!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:44:12 AM EDT

[#25]

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:45:38 AM EDT

[#26]

Congratulations to you. Rest easy and enjoy yourself, sounds like you earned it.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:46:14 AM EDT

[#27]

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:46:51 AM EDT

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:

View Quote

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:48:27 AM EDT

[#29]

Congratulations on your retirement, sir.

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:50:27 AM EDT

[#30]

Congratulations sir!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:52:38 AM EDT

[#31]

Thanks for your service and congratulations!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:53:39 AM EDT

[#32]

Congrats and thanks!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:55:25 AM EDT

[#33]

Congrats, sounds impressive to me.

When I retire, it's going to be a story of how many different cubicles I had...

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:57:11 AM EDT

[#34]

Congrats and thank you!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:58:07 AM EDT

[#35]

Congratulations!

Posted: 9/1/2015 6:59:41 AM EDT

[#36]

And I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

View Quote

Congrats Colonel! That's a life well-lived. Now enjoy retirement.

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:00:33 AM EDT

[#37]

Wait what- that wasn't really Santa being tracked???

JK- thank you for your service, Sir!

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:00:43 AM EDT

[#38]

Thank you. That sounds like a wild ride.

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:02:21 AM EDT

[#39]

Congrats!

Now I've got to hear why that pentagon tour was so awful.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:04:50 AM EDT

[#40]

Makes My '82-'86 of Flight Line slavery seem pretty puny!

The Ol' Crew Chief

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:05:27 AM EDT

[#41]

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:07:25 AM EDT

[#42]

Thank you!

What's the plan now?

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:09:10 AM EDT

[#43]

Congrats brother. Enjoy the retirement.

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:09:54 AM EDT

[#44]

Congrats man. Retirement is weird but very nice

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:10:19 AM EDT

[#45]

Thank you for your service!

Are you planning on getting a civilian job, or is it a real retirement?

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:11:19 AM EDT

[#46]

Quote History

Quoted:
Enjoy your retirement, and thank you for your service!!

View Quote

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:12:42 AM EDT

[#47]

thank you for your service

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:15:15 AM EDT

[#48]

Thanks for your service ..

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:15:17 AM EDT

[#49]

Congratulations. Can you tell us about living underground and what that was like?

Posted: 9/1/2015 7:20:00 AM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
Yes, that includes leap days. 26 years, 17 days of wearing USAF blue.

I came on active duty on the 14th of August, 1989.

Since then, I’ve had 25 different jobs at 15 different locations, only three of which were both above ground AND had windows.

I've served under 12 USAF Chief of Staffs, 9 Secretaries of Defense, and five presidents, with my commission signed by a sixth (All Hail Renaldus Magnus!).

I’ve done 27 promotions, nine reenlistments, 31 commissionings, one retirement, and one court martial (not mine),

I've spent 279 days on nuclear alert, 300-ish days on space operations crew, 357 days deployed to Afghanistan, and served a three-year sentence at the Pentagon with no time off for good behavior.

I’ve been a crew commander, flight commander, detachment commander, instructor, evaluator, educator, staff officer, operations officer, and snack bar officer.

In my time in the Air Force, I’ve learned that at 30 below, a boiling hot cup of coffee thrown in the air will freeze before it hits the ground, I’ve had lunch with the Afghan Army Chief of the General Staff, I’ve visited some of the biggest nuclear weapons facilities in the country, I’ve had to figure out the best way to get a dead cow out of a sewage lagoon, and I spent one really fun Christmas Eve answering the phones for the annual NORAD Tracks Santa event, earning the undying gratitude of parents by telling their kids they had to go to bed RIGHT NOW or he’d pass them by.

And I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Except for the Pentagon tour.

The really funny thing is I never planned on making it a career—it just happened that every time I was wondering what the next step was, the Air Force promoted me and sent us off to another cool assignment in a great place that made it worth sticking around. So, here I am, a quarter century later, a lot more grey hair and a lot lower PT test scores than when I started, but MAN, was it a fun ride.

Except for the Pentagon tour.

Anyway, I’ve had a great run, but it’s time for someone else to sign for the alert.

Limaxray, Lt Col, USAF, and as of today, (Ret).

View Quote

Nice piece of change coming to you once a month... all the occifer haters saying enlisted is the way to go are full of it...O-5, 26 years Ka friggn CHING!!!! E-5, 26 years starving.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Yesterday was my 9,514th, and final, day on active duty--now with Bovine Recovery Team story Pg 5 (Page 1 of 6)

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