O-4 with 17 years, been waiting and waiting for the calendar to keep rolling by to that magic 20 mark...sometimes it seems like it will never get there.

I've considered punching a couple times before, primarily when I got passed over for O-5 but couldn't afford it then (would have had to pay back some bonus $$). Still, the drudgery gets to me at times, and I keep thinking of breaking away...and the thought has been getting stronger lately. I have an ADSC til Aug 2009 for a PCS last summer, so I have some time to gather the information, start working the connections, and make an informed decision.

Some would call me crazy for getting out at 18 next year. After the passover a couple years ago, one of my buds said "five more years? you could do that standing on your head!" And that's what I thought too...but there's still three more years to go and my head already hurts.

So I'm looking into the Guard/Reserve thing again, and reviewing/researching all the info on my target airlines, wondering if I'll be able to make a commute work as well as maintain enough income during the first few years of airline pay with a Guard gig on the side.

I've been lurking here on and off for a couple years now, so I've already learned a bunch. I'm doing a lot more reading, talking to some of my contacts, and thought I'd start asking questions here. I'm really hoping that I'm not falling into the "grass is greener" trap. But I want to find out all I can and see if this will work.

I searched already to find out a bit about the sanctuary rules and whether I could earn enough points to qualify for an active duty retirement and start drawing the retired pay before age 60. From what I saw, it's do-able, and one guy I met recently says there's several guys in his Guard unit doing that exact thing.

But for now, I just wanted to say "hey". I know I'll have more questions, so I'll be around.