re: Retiring

I just want to say that if I had a job killing ragheads I'd brag about that shite all the time. I'd probably try to video the kills so that I could watch them at night right before bedtime... then I could dream about dead Hadjis.

quote:

---

I admit that sometimes I may have too many adult beverages and post more info that I should sometimes.

---

I'm glad you said it, brother. I've thought that on a few occasions, "Bush shouldn't post when he's been drinking."

quote:

---

I have a good life and I just need to take the time to enjoy it

---

Amen. Regret and second-guessing will eat you up. I hate to say we have to live for the moment, but we do. The big shot clock in the sky runs against every single one of us. Nobody gets to their deathbed saying, "I wish we hadn't traveled so much and had so much fun."

Like I said earlier, you only have yourself to answer to - nobody can say you didn't carry your share of the load, probably some other people's share, too.

I tell the story every now and then - a commander had some personal beef with me that I never understood or even got a good reason for - anyway, I was "not relieved" after about 5 months in command (although I had been acting commander for 6 months before that). Then, the unit gets deployed (our commander was the state mobilization officer, and much like LBJ, was just dying for a combat command). We were still in our dwell time from a prior deployment and I would have had to sign a waiver to be deployed again so soon. I had troops coming to me and asking me, "Sir - please get on the mission. We're going to need someone downrange with some common sense."

I prayed on it, but I didn't trust the guy. He fired my replacement after 1 month and they deployed with a young lieutenant as commander and he was a disaster, as was the other company commander. Thank God we didn't lose anybody downrange or I would have felt terrible.

I didn't think I could do any good (maybe I was right) in that situation, and my family deserved more than a few months with me after my having just been gone a year. But, had I still been company commander when the deployment order came in, there is no question I would have signed the waiver and deployed - warts and all. He did me a favor by "not relieving" me.

Everything works out as it's supposed to. You've been over a dozen times. God bless you for that. But, I wouldn't agonize about not going again for 1 minute.