Former military members?

[Fullfan]

Law enforcement. It’s been a good choice, really. But if I had it to do over, I’d stay in the Army for at least 20. I could have retired at 38 and still become a cop.

In many ways, I’ve never gotten the Army out of my system. I was a young Sergeant/E5 and doing well. I got a good Non Commissioned Officer Evaluation Report when I got out. I wish I had stayed in and gone to Special Forces selection.

But that ship has sailed and it isn’t returning to port.

No way I would have wanted to endure the 28 weeklong Academy at 38. At least the PA State Police Academy. I was a long-distance runner and in great shape when I went through. Would have been a tough go for someone at 38.

 

[sconnieVLP]

That’s a lot of moves. I had 8 moves in 20 years and personally I appreciated most of them.

To maybe add a “positive” to moving, we wouldn’t have known for sure where we wanted to settle down unless we would have seen all the places and been “forced” to live there.

The one assignment we were most frustrated about ended up being our favorite and making #2 on the retirement location list.

Almost to 20, hang in there!

(Side note: we actually “moved” 14 times but 6 of those were self inflicted moves at the assignments, which that much moving sucked….but our fault).

That’s a fair point, although my assignments generally cemented my desire to move back to WI when I’m done. I would do shameful things to get an assignment out West at some point. I’ve bounced around the East Coast and back and forth to Europe a couple times (to include NCR x2) so it would be cool to be somewhere new. Got to NC about two months ago, and if I don’t blow it in the first two years I’ll stay for a total of four. Looking forward to not having to pick up and move every 12-18 months like I have been.

I’ll PM you for some gouge on retirement, I’m trying to figure out at what point I want to start telling the flight doc everything to get it in my records.

 

[mtwarden]

I was a law enforcement specialist in the Air Force—it paid for the remainder of my college and the four years of LE experience I gained helped me land my dream job as a game warden.

The military has almost every equivalent job that you would find on the civilian side, not a bad way to gain hands on training AND help pay for college.

 

[3325]

No way I would have wanted to endure the 28 weeklong Academy at 38. At least the PA State Police Academy. I was a long-distance runner and in great shape when I went through. Would have been a tough go for someone at 38.

That’s a long academy, for sure. Mine took about four months. I suspect many state police and state trooper academies have a lot of material related to big rig inspections, crash investigations, and pursuit driving that some municipal academies don’t delve as deep into? Dunno.

Also, some academies are low stress. Mine was. The instruction was good, but I thought it was almost like a community college environment. Maybe not quite that way, but certainly not militaristic. Sheriffs are a political force to be reckoned with in rural states, and they’re going to fight against anything set up to be too much of a weeding out process. I think as far as a rural sheriff is concerned, he did whatever weeding out he needed to do on his local application, testing, and interview board, and now the state just needs to provide training.

But anyway, I suspect you could have done a stress academy at 38, because I know people who have.

 

[Oregon]

I did 32 years in the USCG. Had full intentions of doing 20 and starting a new career. Then I pulled out the calculator and realized if I could make it to 30, I’d probably not need to work again. I was extremely specialized in my skills and in high demand. Where I was needed is exactly where I was wanting to retire. Small coastal town in the PacNW. So, I kept signing one year contracts from year 26 to 32. I hit 50 years old and retired then. My body was done. Running small boats in big ugly seas is a young persons sport.
E-9 at 32 years with a disability check thrown on top is damn fine retirement income.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I was in USN 1968-1972. I was a A/C mech. I went to ACR school while in the Navy. I continued A/C after I got out for another 38 years.

 

[Fullfan]

That’s a long academy, for sure. Mine took about four months. I suspect many state police and state trooper academies have a lot of material related to big rig inspections, crash investigations, and pursuit driving that some municipal academies don’t delve as deep into? Dunno.

Also, some academies are low stress. Mine was. The instruction was good, but I thought it was almost like a community college environment. Maybe not quite that way, but certainly not militaristic. Sheriffs are a political force to be reckoned with in rural states, and they’re going to fight against anything set up to be too much of a weeding out process. I think as far as a rural sheriff is concerned, he did whatever weeding out he needed to do on his local application, testing, and interview board, and now the state just needs to provide training.

But anyway, I suspect you could have done a stress academy at 38, because I know people who morning at 0500, with a 4-7 mile run, then chow. Off to due daily duties, KP, grounds Maintenace, barn and horse duties. Class started at 0800, and ran until 1700

No doubt I could have done it at 38, if I had to. Bad thing about the PA State Police, they force you out at 60. They have an age limit of 40 to apply. Bad part , if you attend the academy and graduate at 40. You can only receive a 20-year pension, being 50% of your highest paid year. Were a 25-year pension pays 75%.

The academy staff are hard on the cadets. If they see a shadow of a doubt in you, they will work on you 24/7 until they force you to resign. My class started with 164 and graduated 120. My son started with 110 in his class and graduated 80.