John, Back on 03 Nov 2018, Jerry Frateschi wrote a similar post (Life after the Navy) and encouraged others to follow suit. His solicitation drew a lot of "good idea" responses but then kinda died on the vine. I found your post to be exceptionally interesting and hopefully others will also and then find the time to write their own post.
Nicely written and very interesting post. Thanks for sharing.
John,
I must extend my apology to Jerry. I somehow missed his post back in November. I feel like I committed a severe case of plagiarism. How ironic is that for a newspaper guy. I even used the same title. However, I could say that great minds think alike.
Certainly no reason to apologize. I only pointed out Jerry's post because it didn't get the response I was hoping for and I was really hoping your post would draw more replies.
We'll see I guess.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to write your post. It was interesting.
J
It took me about two years (Navy time) to find the Green Doors, and almost 27 years to find the exit doors! Who said we get smarter with age? But it actually worked out far better than I could have imagined. Training, SURTOPS, and Career Counselor billets made me realize I really enjoyed teaching. A year after USN retirement, I was an NJROTC instructor in a SC school. Great program, great kids (mostly), great fellow instructor (even though he WAS a dang Marine!). A good run of 16 years - all the fun of USN, but without the ugly side effects!
I'm now fully retired..."on the dole" as someone once said. I'm an elementary school classroom mentor, and spend two days a week volunteering at the USO. I only do THAT because I get free coffee...and because the "Boss" threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't get out of "her" house!