In the middle of the night I had what just might have been a brilliant thought. Why do I need to back to Ft Benning on my way to Europe? We have others who are skipping that small detour.
I asked this morning. Guess what? It is all dependant on whether or not I can get a CIF in Germany to accept all my deployment gear. It actually decreases the cost to the army (mil flight to Germany vs mil flight to the US followed by commercial flight back). It would make me happy. It would cut down my return time.
So, right now I will just think about counting down my remaining time with the worst case numbers (here to Kuwait to Ft Benning to UK to home) which means 56 days at the outside. Let us call it 60 for round numbers.
In 60 days, I could be sitting in my living room with my feet up, sipping a nice cup of tea and contemplating the rest of my life since we all know that there is life after retirement.
OTOH – we all know the Army is going to make my return as difficult as possible. Stay tuned for updates!
Retirement is wonderful, but it is a challenge. All those hours in the day! So that’s why I started a business, and now I’m busier than I ever thought I would be. And loving it!
Holly in retirement. What a picture. You’ll be itching to travel. And where will home be?
Only 60 days?? Brilliant news although I fail to see the reasoning behind your going from Afghan to Ft. Benning and then back to Germany . Makes no sense what so ever!!!!
and you expect the military to make sense? After working for the Brits for how many years now?
Must admit, I had thought it odd, costly and just unfortunate for you to have to trace a triangle across the planet to get home – tho I was very pleased to know there was a stop in my country!
How great it wld be if you could take the shortest distance between 2 points and just go straight to Germany! Much btr for you and your family!
I shall keep my fingers crossed and pray extra hard that you can make that happen!
Roll on 60 days!!!
60 days – it seems like the time is moving quickly but slowly. Thanks for sharing the journey with us. I’ll cross my fingers for a direct flight to Germany for you.
who are you kidding? You need that last bit of pain to twist the knife on the way out the door. Logic and military reasoning, mutually exclusive most of the time. They will make you come to Benning because that is what the policy says…
Standing by for that report.
Having been retired once for one hour, it was pretty nice, but not enough to make a final judgment.
I think it’s time for a “How short are you (or am I)” contest. Invite your friends to contribute repsonses. You can figure out an appropriate grand prize for the best response, and you can designate yourself the undisputable final arbiter of what constitutes the best response.
Ex: How short is Holly?
She’s so short, that when she goes to the PX to buy shoe polish, she reads the label to see how many shines you can get out of a single can.
These will the slowest days of your life!
How will you mark this milestone?
You need to do something.
Something fun.
Make a good memory.
You know better than to count days, even on your last deployment right before retirement. Life slows to a crawl!