Sunday, July 08, 2007

The Half-Way Point

Today is husband's 10 year anniversary. 10 years in the army, that is. He's given 10 years to one of the toughest jobs anyone can do, and he's half-way to retirement. Retirement at age 38 is very enticing, espeically when he's only got 10 years left.
Although I was best friends with husband's sister, I didn't really know him the day he raised his right hand, took the Oath of Enlistment, and hopped on the airplane headed toward Ft. Benning, GA. I can only imagine how excited he must have been for this new challenge as he arrived at basic training.
Ten years later, he's a completely different person. He has a wife, three kids, and he's 5 ranks higher. He looks older than he is, he has wrinkles around his eyes, he has fractures in his shins from running on concrete every day, he has sore knees from jumping out of airplanes. He's a 28 year old man in a 41 year old's body. But he rarely complains, he takes his job in stride, and in the end he knows that retiring at 38 sounds very sweet!
Tomorrow he is going in to re-enlist for pretty much another 10 years. After he gets back from the next Iraq deployment that is scheduled, he'll have 12 years in the army anyway. And now that a nice sized re-enlistment bonus has been dumped in his lap, it makes the deal all that sweeter.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the big bonus, and retirement at 38 is a nice little perk and well earned reward for you guys!

Anonymous said...

Good for him~ tell him congrats on the reenlistment:)

Anonymous said...

Oh I wish we could hold on that long... but I think we are getting out in Oct 2008 to flip houses. He will have 8 years then... another 12 seems too long... his 4 at the Naval Academy don't count until he hits 20... we are very impatient people!

Congrats to you! Happy 10 years!!!