35 Years Ago Today

Although I had taken 60 days terminal leave, I departed my last duty station on December 1st 1978. February 1st, 1979 was my official date of retirement. It's hard to believe I retired 35 years ago today. I was active duty from November 1958 until February 1979; twenty years of good and bad assignments. But a lot of great friends, the names of many are forgotten, but their faces still haunt my memory, as do their voices. I know I've mentioned this before, but one evening several years ago the telephone rang and on the other end was a voice from Vietnam. Talk about ghosts, I instantly recognized that voice. He was a young three-stripe sergeant who worked for me in Vietnam. Today he lives in Tennessee and teaches school in Alabama. He didn't make a career in the military, but went into teaching instead. Like many from that period, Vietnam made him choose another career than the military. But anyway, I'm feeling a little nostalgic today, I hope you don't mind.

Tom