A look back at my former military life review: names called, uniforms worn, recruiting campaign slogans changed.

On this date 10 years ago, I was officially honorably discharged from my time in the military. This is a look back at the names, uniforms and campaign slogans used during my 12 years of Active duty US Army service. I’m still serving today but in a different way.

I was called many names during my time in the service.

I was born into the military.

My father was a Soldier, so I was born a military dependent.

With my parent’s permission, as I needed their signature to proceed, I became a delayed-entry Soldier.

Once I completed Basic Training, I felt like a real Soldier. (My time as an official Soldier started once I raised my right hand and swore to protect and defend…) Your word should mean something, am I right?

I went all over the place and learned all types of jobs working with all sorts of different people. It was a great experience for me, especially coming straight from high school. (Click here to read My journey in post high school education…)

I met and married another Soldier so we became known as dual military.

We had children and so they became known as our dependents.

I decided to get out of the military and became known as a military spouse.

I received an honorable discharge for the successful completion of my duty.

People who knew about my time in military service refer to me as prior service.

I am also a Veteran.

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Click to read “Happy Veterans Day!“.

I’ve received my new orders straight from the Top.

Click to read “What is PWOC?“

This is how I get plugged in even before we PCS to a new duty station. Networking makes the world small! There are PWOC’s on almost every installation all around the world!

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I wore many different uniforms too.

I learned a lot about life and I grew up through my 12 years in the Army.  Unfortunately, since I don’t have all of my things here yet due to our recent whirlwind move overseas, I’m limited to what I could scrounge up from online. I’ll have to edit this later with a few pics to complete the collection.

I started off wearing BDU’s (America, Korea, Japan) and then I wore DCU’s for my assignment in the Middle East (Kuwait).  I finished my time with ACU’s (with the beret) but in recruiting duty we often wore the green Class A’s or the Dress Blues (back in the good ‘ol US of A) to certain events.

There were a few marketing campaigns throughout my time.

When I joined, it was “Be all that you can be” (Get an edge on life… in the Army!)

Then, I remember when it changed to “Army of One.” I was a recruiter when that happened, or maybe that’s just when I noticed because I remember having to answer a lot of questions about what that meant. Do you remember when that came out?

Finally, by the time I ETS’d out of the military, all of our recruiting goodies changed to “Army Strong.” Our applicants resonated with that one for sure as they were doing what many won’t do.

I’m not sure what the Army motto is now. If you served or are currently serving, which one sticks in your head the most?

Maybe one day, I will refer to myself outside of military milestones.  However, since I’m still “In It To Win It” that day will likely be a long time from now!

HOOAH!

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At the time of this blog post, I wrote a series about military retirement. Click below to read Part 1.

Facing the military retirement transition Part 1: Are you ever going back to work?

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