12 years!

[Shake]

Although I separated in '01, today is the 12th anniversary of my beginning active duty in the USAF! I was supposed to have gone to Cannon AFB, in nowhere, NM. They've got F-16s there, so the likelihood of my having been deployed someplace even less pleasant would have been much higher than if I'd been allowed to continue serving in lovely Charleston, SC.

I've found that since leaving active duty, I'm much more aware of the anniversaries of my DOS (date of separation) than today. The realization that it'd have been 12 years only just struck me yesterday. Of course, I'd probably be flying a desk by now ... probably running a shift and supervising multiple airmen. All the more reason I'm glad to be out.

[viscousmemories]

Y'know it occurs to me that even though I knew you weren't still in, I picture you being in because you were in camo in the first pic I saw of you. Well congrats on... whatever it is you're exactly you're commemorating about having once joined. :)

[livius drusus]

What is it that makes the date significant, Shake, if I may ask? Is it traditional to commemorate the beginning of active duty? Pardon my ignorance and please accept the following smilies by way of congratulation.

:camouflage: :drillsgt: :yessir:

[wade-w]

Next month, it'll be 25 years for me. And 20 years since my official DOS. Since I took teminal leave it's actually been a bit over 20 years since I got out.

[livius drusus]

What's a DOS?

[wade-w]

Date of Seperation. IOW, your last day of active duty.

[Ymir's blood]

Disk Operating System. Windows 98 and earlier ran on MS-DOS.


:innocent:

[livius drusus]

Ohh, okay. Thank you, wade. Feel free to smack Ymir's blood around a little if you want. He likes it.

[Ymir's blood]

Ohh, okay. Thank you, wade. Feel free to smack Ymir's blood around a little if you want. He likes it.
Only from girls with riding crops, and you don't have yours yet... :P

[livius drusus]

Curses! :shakefist:

[CARLA]

SHAKE, http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/14/14_1_107v.gif Thank you for your many years of service to this country..


:roflmao: :roflmao: Ymir's blood,

FUNNY. :giggle:

Disk Operating System. Windows 98 and earlier ran on MS-DOS.

[livius drusus]

Non native smiley alert! Non native smiley alert! Does. Not. Compute. :explode2:

[Shake]

What is it that makes the date significant, Shake, if I may ask? Is it traditional to commemorate the beginning of active duty? Pardon my ignorance and please accept the following smilies by way of congratulation.

:camouflage: :drillsgt: :yessir:
Significant? Nothing more than other dates such as birthdays or anniversaries I suppose. That and the fact that my pay would have gone up yesterday -- the military gives longevity increases every 2 years, so getting to 12 would have meant an automatic pay raise (on top of the 1 Jan COL (cost of living) increase).

This page (http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay/pay/) has links for .doc or .pdf versions of the 2005 US military pay scale. I was an E-5 when I left, and chances are decent that I would have made E-6 by now had I stayed in. So, you could go to the E-6 row and the 12 year column to see what my base pay (per month) would have been.

So yeah, 13 Jan 93 was my TAFMSD (total active federal military service date) -- basically like a hire date.

Thanks, Carla!

PS. I've posted this elsewhere, but just out of interest: I had my final outprocessing briefing scheduled for 9/12/01, with my DOS being 25 Sep 01. Many folks were surprised they let me go, but they did. Turned out that they shut the door on retirements, separations, etc. effective 2 Oct 01! IOW, if my separation date had been about a week later, I'd have been SOL, and stuck on active duty until they finally decided to let me go. As it turns out that wouldn't have been for several more months, and my wife and son had already moved back here!

[Ensign Steve]

(on top of the 1 Jan COL (cost of living) increase).

Yes! I got a raise! :D :D :D

Congrats, Shake. I remember your DOS pretty well, too, because I think of it whenever I hear somebody mention "stoploss." Phew! Under the wire! ;)

liv: The date Shake's celebrating today is also significant because one have to write it on almost as many forms as one's birthdate! Doubt if I'll ever forget mine, either.