For those who were in the military, doesn’t matter the branch, why did you ETS and what led to the decision? Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to calling it a day and not reenlisting when I’m eligible to. I would like to do the full twenty and retire, but I don’t really seem to be enjoying it much anymore. I’m tired of being away from family, don’t really enjoy the job anymore, and a few other reasons. My wife has encouraged me to finish it out, and I understand why, I would have about seven years until retirement when my ETS date rolls around. I really want to be home though.
Well, I currently have about 7-9 months left before I am out, but I can tell you why I made the decision to leave:
I did my time, I served honorably, deployed, and did some things. I started school, got financially secure, and grew up. I learned to follow, to lead, to stand up for myself and for my Marines, and to be assertive and confident.
With that said, the politics of the military got to me in a big way. The way that my command ignored nearly every leadership principle, treated us NCO’s like PFC’s, and clusterfucked every OP we ever did was enough to nix it for me. I considered lat moving, I consider giving it another try, but at the end of the day I KNOW that the grass is never greener.
(I recently attended the ball in my Chucks as a working party because I didn’t want to pay $55 of my own pay to go to a ceremony that Ive never enjoyed. 17 hours in my damn charlies to supervise some Lcpls and watch a BGen’s cover. If I had re-enlisted already, I would’ve dug my eyes out)
Semper Fi to all those that continue to carry the torch, but Ive carried it for my time and Im ready to hand it off and do bigger and better things with my life.
If you have 13 years invested so far, I encourage you to stick it out. Iraq and A’stan are winding down. The job situation sucks and you have some security at the moment.
Just my 100 fils on the subject.
Do you know what you want to do when you get out (besides stay home with the family more)? Do you have something lined up?
In my case, I did have something else I wanted to do, so that prompted my going into the reserves. I had about 13 years total time when I resigned and got out completely. I did this because between my military career and my civilian carrier, I was NEVER home and that did not go well with my other goal of settling down and starting a family.
Was it a good decision? Well I now have an 11 mo old, but my civilian job has become stagnant and the camaraderie and sense of purpose I had in the military is gone. Another big thing to consider is retirement. After 13 “good” years, all I got was a DD214 and an honorable discharge. I always kind of figured I’d have a .mil retirement and whatever pension my civilian job gave me so I didn’t do a lot of saving in that 13 years. Well, I don’t have squat now from the .mil and the pensions in my civilian career are a thing of the past. So I’m now pumping 20% of my take home into retirement just so I can hopefully retire when I’m forced out at 65.
As Gunz has mentioned, the civilian job market isn’t great and coming out into it without a clear objective of what you want to do is not something I would do. If you have something lined up and you have been a good boy and saving for retirement, then maybe it is worth the risk.
I got out after my first enlistment because of the politics. I never learned to play the politics, even in my civvy jobs.
After I passed what would have been my 20th year of Air Force service, I found myself a single dad, just getting by making $19.10/hr working as a contractor on Apache helicopters. My sons & I were living in a rented trailer house in Texas, and I drove a ten year old Jeep. Not that I care that much about new cars or fancy homes, but that’s about all I could comfortably afford. The guys I worked with were making the same money, had a nice full sized truck, a car for the wife, a house and a Harley (yeah, it was like they all had a group buy on the same package) and thought $19.10/hr was great money! That’s because they were all retired Army and had at least $2000 a month coming in from their retirements.
Only you can decide what’s best for you & your family. But if your wife is willing to be supportive, staying in may be a good choice
I know you said that it doesn’t matter but it might help some of us give better scoop.
What service, rank and what is your MOS?
I ask this because in the Marines you can ask for a ‘B’ Billet job. I ended up going Embassy Guard at the 12 year mark. that was a three year tour away from the infantry that I wasn’t crazy about but it did give me a break. My oldest daughter is checking into NROTC, each area has 2-3 enlisted. I think that if you get a three year break, it might help the remaining 7 years go by quicker.
As you know there is talk about changing the retirement, I don’t know what it is going to look like in a couple years but I do know that right now the annual $468 that we pay for medical has made life a lot easier and it is leverage when negotiating your next job when you get out.
I think that’s really important. It could be the difference between having bullets whizzing by your head or breaking a fingernail typing, all depending on what your job is. If you can grin and bear it for 7 more years I’d probably suggest going that route due to the economy and job situation like others have said.
My reasons for getting out were similar to yours and I think they’re fairly typical. However, I got out after 4 and didn’t have nearly the time invested that you do.
This. You’ve got a lot of time invested and the job market does suck.
I’m gonna guess you are a 13F. Are you JFO certified? The JFO school needs instructors BAD, that would certainly be a break compared to more deployments.
If you have 13 years in, suck it up and finish out. 7 more years will get you a lifetime of great benefits.
I am a SSG 13F and carry the ASI for JFO. I would have to go back through the course as my certifications have expired. The thing is I don’t enjoy the career field much anymore and want to do something that will translate better to the civilian job market.
To clarify my TIS. I’m not yet at 13 years. I still have a little over a year left and13 is what I will be at if I were to ETS and not stay in. I’m simply trying to figure things out now on whether I want to stay in and retire or get out so I can plan accordingly.
And I’m not going to voluntarily relocate my family to Lawton. Especially not after the gangs there are willing to openly call for the shooting of soldiers who are off post in uniform.
I believe there is a JFO school in Europe as well. I know JFO/JTAC stuff doesn’t line up with a civilian job but I know a lot of our guys get out and get jobs with like Harris or Rockwell Collins and such, just to give you ideas.
It’s ultimately up to you man I know there are days when I want to get out, but that retirement check and healthcare for your family are tough to turn down when you are on the downhill you know? Is it hard to get out of 13F? Any special assignments you could get into?