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I wish I could have done about 3 more enlistments

Rack Ops
I was thinking to myself this morning about my decision to join the Marine Corps when I was 17.

I got to live a dream that not everyone is able to do. Leading Infantry Marines into combat in Iraq remains the high honor of my life.

That being said....there is so much more I wish I had gotten to do. I would have loved to work the flight deck of an Aircraft Carrier....or be a door gunner on a Helo.

When I was a teenager, I was sure I was going to join the Navy and volunteering for sub duty (The Marine Corps reflected a hard turn that I still don't have an explaination for, lol). I still sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be a sonar operator and play hide-and-seek with Russian subs in the North Atlantic.

No regrets with the decision I ultimately made....but damn, I'd love to time warp back to my high school graduation and try something else....and then do it again and again.
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Comments

14 comments

Date Votes
  • Brookwood
    I too have no regrets about my time in service. I will say that I may have made it a career if a certain officer wouldn't have called my wife "EXCESS BAGGAGE" at one of the family get togethers we did on base.

    Sure, I could have stayed in but it would have been as a single man.

    Looking back some 45 years later, I still have the same wife and have enjoyed several benefits from being in the military. 3 more sons born while living civilian life that would not have been had I stayed.

    I also have no regrets about getting out.[:)]
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  • grumpygy
    Made it 20 But wish health would have not interfered and I made it 30.

    My Regret is starting smoking at 15. Not my Service.
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  • 84Bravo1
    I too, wish and regret not having pulled 20. (I did 5. US Army)

    Was going to re-up for Rotary Wing Flight School. It was then determined, I no longer had 20/20 vision. I still wish I had pulled my 20. Will always be a regret of mine.
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  • ltcdoty
    When I got out of the Air Force back in early 1972, they offered me a Fed. Tech job at the local Air Guard base....C-130's with skis...paid pretty good.....the kicker was I had to join the Air Guard, and I would have bumped up a stripe.

    Being the wise azz that I was, I turned it down.....I would of had two pensions when I retired........what a jerk I was....[xx(]
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  • JamesRK
    I seriously considered a career in the Navy but my wife kept telling me I?d best retire while I had something to retire with. I kept bumping heads with people I probably shouldn?t have bumped heads with. I got up one morning and realized she was right and put in my letter. I retired as a W-3 on the day I would have been a W-4. At that time W-4 was the top Warrant grade.

    As I got older I lost what was left of my tolerance for idiots, fools, criminals, union thugs, lawyers, etc. If I had a chance for a do-over I can?t think of anything I would do differently.
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  • mogley98
    Shoulda Coulda Woulda, I did 4 active and regret not staying. I tell kids I run into with 10-12 years they are NUTs to get out and most likely will regret it.
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  • Sam06
    I was just getting too old to keep up with the young guys and I didn't want to become some old ass pencil pusher.

    I retired at 47 after 25 years. I could still run 5 miles in 40 min, Force March 12 miles in 3 hrs with a combat load and score 90% or better on all events in the APFT for a 21 Y/O................But it was getting really hard to do that.

    I got when the time was right. I wish I could have stayed in. I did have fun training soldiers for 10 years in foreign country's.
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  • Old-Colts
    I got out of the Navy after 8 years and 9 months. Looking back, it was the right thing for me and worked out great, no regrets!!!
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  • wpage
    Next time around going coast guard. Knee deep navy looks good in retrospect.
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  • JamesRK
    quote:Originally posted by Old-Colts
    I got out of the Navy after 8 years and 9 months. Looking back, it was the right thing for me and worked out great, no regrets!!!

    When I was in Antarctica I knew an E-6 with 14 years that was offered a full professorship at some university in California. They told him they could hold it open for him until his discharge date, but after that it would be filled by somebody else. He accepted their offer and didn?t seem to have any second thoughts about it.
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  • mogley98
    Glad it did work out for you, based on healthcare costs and retirement an E6 would draw a couple hundred grand in retirement in just ten years, twenty would be about 400K and neither number adds Health. BETHO

    quote:Originally posted by Old-Colts
    I got out of the Navy after 8 years and 9 months. Looking back, it was the right thing for me and worked out great, no regrets!!!
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  • armilite
    I probably should have stayed in longer then the 6 years that I did. But what did I know when I was 24. Tried getting back in, in the early 90's. Was told I weighed to much.
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  • grdad45
    Don't regret my 4 years in the SeaBees, and probably should have stayed in. I knew it would be another tour in VN as soon as I signed the paper, so opted out. I would have been in country about three months before the Tet offensive, so may have been lucky. As it was, I had a good time, serving 1 year in California, 1 in VN, and 2 in Puerto Rico. I got field promotions in Nam, making me an E-5 in just under 2 years. A couple of buddies and I had a house off base, with "hot and cold running maids". [}:)] My mother called it a "den of iniquity"!
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  • kimi
    It's an interesting subject alright, but never one that I've been able to dwell upon for any length of time. Met a lot of people along the way who were inspirational. One, a young Marine who seldom went off base, and could usually be found in the barracks by himself on payday, working on his gear, and in his bunk reading the Bible before taps. A really nice guy.
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