Mark, I forgot to mention the adjustment period. It is really had to get used to retirement. It took me 3 minutes and 11.5 seconds.
Charlie
Charlie B Wrote:Mark, I forgot to mention the adjustment period. It is really had to get used to retirement. It took me 3 minutes and 11.5 seconds.
Charlie
Glad you could do that Charlie, it's been ten years now for us and I continually wonder where all that free time went that I had when I was working.
Thanks for your years of service to our mutual neighbors and our homeland. Congratulations on making it through the danger you've been called upon to face...for all of us. WOW...what a way to start a New Year !!! Bob C.
My sincere thanks for all the kind thoughts and words.
It still hasn't quite hit me yet that I won't be putting on a flight suit and getting into a Herc anymore. When I got off active duty, I really missed the flying and missions. After 9/11, the call was too strong and I had to go back in. There I was, almost 40 and going back into military service like some kid, knowing I'd be sent to Iraq as soon as I finished C-130 training. I spent Christmas that year in Iraq (still referred to as "the year we didn't have Christmas" by my kids). And I was one of only five airplanes allowed to fly on the first Iraqi elections day. (Scared the you know what out of me too...but that's another story.) That was the day the Brit C-130 was shot down. (I still feel bad for those guys even now.)
A few years later, I'm flying in Afghanistan, in a more serious "shootin' war." (Hey - look at that RPG go by the left wing...cool!) You can see bullets flying by really well on night vision goggles. After that deployment, the family all said, "that's it...time to retire."
So here we are. Day one of retirement and I'm not sure it's really sunk in yet. I'm still flying in my civilian job...but the military uniform will soon be placed in a box in the attic.
Hello Mark--- my father served in the Canadian Navy during WW2 and of all his accomplishments in life,serving his country is something that made him a true hero in my eyes.I'm sure your children must be very proud of their father as well.