Tomorrow I'll be putting the husband on yet another plane to head away from me..but this time it's not to a country across the ocean but to the state of Kansas to clear Ft Riley. He is finally retiring from the Army. It's hard to wrap the brain around that fact that in less then a few months he will be "offically" retired. Almost 11yrs of his life was spent in the Army. 3 deployments, several years spent the field training, schooling and other random military trainings. And it's done and over with...kind of.
The husband will be put on TDRL, or temporary disablity retirement leave, which gives the Army the chance to pull him back in if they feel his injuries have healed enough to go back on active duty to finish his contract and it also means they can cut his retirement pay also. Which is aggervating...since while his PTSD will eventually get better it will never go away, neither will the TBI or his back problems. But I guess I can't complain since we did come out better with the MEB process then a lot of soldiers.
Now we begin a new chapter in life..a chapter without the Army being the dominate force in our life. No more deployments, no field problems, no more ACU's hanging in the closet or tripping over a flack vest and kevlar sitting on the dining room table. It's kind of surreal to think of how much effect on life the Army has til you sit down and think about it. Now the extra Army gear will hang out in the corner of the garage..which includes way to many wool blankets, uniforms dating back to the BDU's, several etools, and way to much other Army "junk".
I can admit I will miss certain parts of the Army life but we are both looking towards this new chapter of life.
