Brothers:
The blue ID card IS sweet!!!! As is the extra jing in the ol' bank account each month. But I do miss it. I miss getting up and running PT every morning with my guys. Yes guys, some of us Warrant Officers actually ran PT. I miss going to work in a musty old hangar at 7am and not going home until 10pm. I miss the frustration of chasing parts just to get that last aircraft up on the last day of the reporting period. I miss the uniform, deployments, overseas tours, ARMY CHOW, the discipline, the smell of JP8, MIL-L-23699, MIL-L-5606, MIL-L-83282, AGPUs, and standing behind an idling Longbow on a FARP at 3am in mid January just to stay warm. MREs, LBVs, my Kevlar, and patrol caps...........never cared for the black beret, as to me, the Rangers got screwed in that Shinseki deal. This and so much more..........but mostly, I miss Soldiers, which is why I am really looking forward to getting to Ft. Riley. Working with these youngsters is so rewarding. Heck I'd do it for free. It is scary how fast we get old. Shortly before I retired I got a kid in my Armament Shop who was born two months after I came in the Army. WOW! And to think of everything that transpired during the time he was born and the time I retired. It's mind blowing.
These are our fellow sheepdogs folks. It's up to us old graybeard sheepdogs to make sure they have the physical and mental tools to keep up the righteous fight of warding of the wolves so the sheep can peacefully graze..............on whatever it is they wish to graze. Lets be sure these Soldiers have it better than we did. That's my goal, and it is why I do what I do. God Bless 'em all.