I told my son not to make my mistake and stay in for 20. He's a ground refueler and working with the planes is always good for the career, though he'll have a heck of a disability rating due to all the knicks, cuts, bumps, etc, that he gets working out on the flightline.
I'm back in federal service working as a civilian employee. I'm trying to work my way through the ranks and get a better paying position though here in Central Indiana that's hard to do.
Best wishes! My brother was in mobile radar systems. My oldest daughter (17) is planning to join the Air Force. We’re hoping she’ll put in three years of community college and then get an ROTC scholarship for her last two years, but if she gets crazy living at home (with seven younger brothers and sisters, so far), she can enlist and get out and Do Something. She’s taking auto mechanics in college, and the Air Force will like a girl who can work on engines.
I was a typist for the Army Corps of Engineers, way back. Civil service work is a hard slog, imo. My husband put in 10 years active duty in the Air Force and then got into the Civil Service, and civil was much worse. He’s a computer network architect for a large retail chain here, and we’re well positioned to ride out the economic downturn, if it happens.
I hope your grandchild is perfect and everything goes well in Japan. I studied Japanese in college, but I’ve never been there. My husband spend a month in Japan when he was working for the DoD as a civilian, and he said the main thing he noticed was how rude everyone was. The only people who would give an old lady a seat on the train were Americans!