Recently, I was having food with a friend of mine and she asked the question, “Why did you leave the military?” This is not the first time someone has asked me this question, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Truth be told, I enjoyed my time in the U.S. Air Force. I’m a big fan of structured living, and after the initial shock of basic training passed, I began to thrive in the environment. I hated studying the manuals, but once we got to the actual job and started performing it, I thrived.
In the military, you know exactly where you stand. For the most part, everyone wears their rank on display. We saluted officers when we saw them, and we followed our chain of command. We exercised at a specific time, we ate at a specific time, and we did what we had to do. This was good for me, and returning to the civilian world felt uncomfortable at first, but I adapted back fairly quickly.
So why did I leave the military? The honest answer is that I had personal reservations about the war in Iraq. At the time, I also wasn’t too satisfied with my unit, as I felt the standards I had been accustomed to weren’t being upheld. But setting that aside, the primary reason was that we were potentially going to deploy to Iraq, and that decision was coming up right around the time I had to decide whether to reenlist.
I shared my concerns with my First Sergeant and let him know that I had reservations about the mission in Iraq. He reminded me that while in uniform, there were limits to how I could express those views, and he mentioned they had the option to freeze my discharge and keep me on active duty. I acknowledged that was within their authority, but I was honest that I had serious doubts about the direction of the mission and didn’t feel I could serve effectively in that capacity.
After some back and forth, they decided it wasn’t worth the situation and processed my separation. I received an honorable discharge because I had served honorably throughout my time in service. My reservations about the mission were genuine, and I felt the right thing to do was to be straightforward about them rather than continue under those circumstances.
There were other contributing factors as well. An officer took a commission slot that had been informally designated for me at my unit, and I felt my path forward was blocked. I also wasn’t satisfied with the job I had been assigned, and requests to retrain into a different role were denied. It felt like the needs of the institution consistently took priority over individual development and job satisfaction.
Losing that officer slot was particularly frustrating. I had put in real effort to get a technology position created within our unit, and there was a shared understanding that it was being built with me in mind. But through some internal maneuvering, that slot went to someone else. I was already weighing my options at that point, and the situation with Iraq ultimately became the deciding factor.
That is the honest answer to why I left the military.
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