You Know You Are A Lot Closer

to the end of your Reserve career than the beginning when there are not many familiar faces from way back when. I graduated from college and was commissioned in 1985. Most of the junior officers who started out with me served their initial tours of duty and left the Army as lieutenants or captains to pursue civilian careers although a few (like me) left active duty and continued on in the Guard or Reserve. A few more took early-outs during the reductions in force in the mid-nineties. The few who remained became eligible to retire from their active duty or Reserve careers starting four or five years ago, depending upon when they started duty. There are only a handful of us left, but it hard to think of my peers as having been around long enough to retire. The usual reaction I get when receiving notice of a retirement of someone I have not seen in a long time is: "How can so-and-so be retiring? He is only 24!", before realizing the man in question is my age and thus 46.