![]() ![]() He didn't have one at all, because he didn't feel it was important to pursue it at the time. Recently, in my guard unit, we had a troop show up off active duty without a DD-214. ![]() Don't Leave Unless Your Paperwork Is Squared Away. The fact that I ran my mouth on my way out the door set back my professional network by years, and it made it much harder to fill out the "references" column on job applications for my first year as a civilian. ![]() Every job I've ever gotten that pays more than $15 an hour has been because somebody I knew spoke up for me. The world is a smaller place than you think. Also, you never know who you'll run into. Simply being on good terms with people can be extremely beneficial. Having solid character references for job or school applications can be invaluable, particularly if you want to come back into the military as a pilot or officer someday. But that hasn't been the case for me, and it likely won't be the case for you. It's tempting to think that as soon as you're out, you'll never need to speak with your chain of command ever again. To add insult to injury, when I told my first sergeant during my last day at the unit that I would have stayed in if I could go back to a line unit, he rolled his eyes and told me that if he'd known that, he would have made it happen. I missed a lot of preparation time because I didn't communicate my intentions early enough. I even had to attend training as a short timer, finishing exactly two weeks before I left the Army. While other guys were going to Army career and alumni program appointments to learn how to write resumes, I was stuck working. The problem was that finding a replacement to run my arms room took time. As a result, I didn't even decide to ETS until I was four months from getting out. Life was miserable, but I held out hope that my job would magically get better. I had a busy deployment, but the two years after were mostly spent in administration roles. When I first left the Army Reserves and enlisted as active duty, I was positive that I was going to finish my 20 (years) as a cavalry scout, kicking in doors and shooting bad guys. ![]() Don't Decide to End Your Service at the Last Minute. ![]()
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