In just under six months I’m going to retire for the first time and I’m only going to be 38. For the past twenty years I have served my country as a US Marine, and it has been a great journey from snot nosed kid to wizened old Gunny. But all things must end, and my time is growing near. As I look forward into the next few months I face not only the anticipation of a new life and new challenges, but the fear of the unknown. It has been a long time since I was on the other side of the fence and a lot has changed. When I made the decision to join the Marine Corps twenty years ago, it was a choice that changed my life and my life alone. This time my decision affects more than just myself, it will dramatically change two other lives, that of my wife and my youngest son. If it was just myself, I think that there would be no fear at all, I could just flip hamburgers at McDonalds and be fine. My wife and son dramatically changes the equation, I have to ensure that they are taken care of, especially during the critical time between my retirement and when I start a new career. I will probably stay in an area that I know, which means the Defense Industry, because honestly how many jobs are out there for a 38 year old Electronic Countermeasures Technician? I know that there are many other things that I could do, I even thought of starting a small computer repair business on my own, or put all of the managerial skills that I have learned to good use, but there is a degree of safety in staying close to what you know. In the next six months I have to go to tons of classes, write resumes, find a job, find a new place to live, it hardly seems like there is enough time to do it all. So anyone reading this stay tuned and watch me loose what is left of my mind as the date gets closer…..

Grog goes back to the Basement