US Coast Guard
(Retired)Petty Officer First Class (E-6)
Rating/MOS: Yeoman
1979 - 1996 (17 years
*)
Cape May, NJ
Petaluma, CA
New York, NY (aka Governors Island)
Cleveland, OH
Buffalo, NY
Boston, MA
Topeka, KS (now, now... I know.. The freakin'
Coast Guard in the middle of Kansas? WTF?)
But it was all 100% Admin/HR/Payroll/I.T. as the whole entire USCG gets paid out of Topeka.
Retirement
*Back in 1996, remember when Bill Clinton and Congress were trying to downsize the military? Way way way too many "high brass" enlisted members were staying in. Promotion boards were at a standstill. You had to wait for someone to freakin' die before you could add another stripe! Remember those years? Anyway, they came out with a new bill approved by Congress, called "TERA" --
Temporary
Early
Retirement
Authorization. In a nutshell: They took the normal 20yr retirement and lowered it to 15 years. Anybody, anywhere, E-5 and above with 15 years of service... Sign here... Bye! Full VA benefits, health care, a total everyday retirement... the only thing different was (obviously) they subtracted out your base pay @ 20 years versus 17.
As a Yeoman (very hard rating to get promoted in), I saw the writing on the wall. I went up for promotion to Chief E-7 over and over and over, and never made it. I said, "screw it" and retired under that TERA policy with 17 years.
