#1 Question
When I tell people I am retired from the Army, without fail, the #1 question they ask is “Do you miss it?”
“All the time” was my reflex answer when I first got out. I’m sure I even said “Every damn day” more than once. I spent over half my life, and my entire adult life, until I retired as a Soldier. It was more than just a job and more than a career, it was who I was. Of course I missed it.
Gaining some time and some space, though, my perspective changed. There were certainly a lot of things I didn’t miss. I didn’t miss the “bullshit” that came with being in the Army…and there was plenty of it. Lots of hours spent standing around and waiting. Lots of middle of the night and weekend phone calls for things that had to be dealt with “immediately”. Being gone…A LOT. Frequently biting my tongue when I disagreed with what was going on around me. OK, frequent may be a strong word…I’ve never been known for being one of quiet dissent. You get it, no job is perfect. Those imperfect things I didn’t miss.
What did I miss? I missed jumping out of planes. My father has a litany of sayings about perfectly good airplanes and those that jump from them, but I really did love it. I miss shared misery, as strange as that sounds. Nothing bonds people together like shared misery; cold nights, drenched to the skin moving through the woods, baking in the open desert. I miss the adventure that went with my profession. I even miss the danger that came with it. That exhilarating feeling of almost dying…and then not.
Really, what I miss is the camaraderie. I touched on that in my first blog. Go back and read it if you haven’t. Anyone who has served in the military misses that. You remember specific names and specific places and you have an endless supply of stories. Whether that is a result of the camaraderie or that brotherhood generates the stories is a “chicken or the egg” discussion, but it really doesn’t matter.
The picture that goes with this blog is a wall of patches at the USO in the Philadelphia Airport. Big shoutout to ALL the people that work at the USOs all over the world. Those patches are from ALL services and a bunch of servicemembers as they passed through. Those patches and places like the USO are what help bind us all together.
As a career Infantryman, most of my time was spent around men. It was a “Boy’s Club” almost all the time. That’s what I miss the most…The Boys. I miss being around them, talking to them, teaching them, learning from them, suffering with them, and sometimes crying with them.
So, do I miss it? Hell yes, I miss it. I miss them. The Boys.