I retired in June '93 after 21 years, 11 months and some days. I was pretty lucky and was in a flying billet for all but about 8 months when I was on the COMUSNAVCENT staff toward the end of the first Gulf War.
I got to fly some pretty neat a/c and do lots of pretty "cool" stuff in that time
, scared myself and/or got the $hit scared out of me more than a few times ; also spent a lot of time away from home
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A/C types (not in chronological order):T-34B, T-28B, T-2A,B,C, TA-4F,J, F-4J,N,S and the F-14A.
I, along with about 25 other retired "old farts", am currently a flight simulator instructor in the Navy "Strike" (or jet) training syllabus. I guess they figure we've got some kind of knowledge to pass on the flight students
Speaking of flight students...I'm constantly amazed at how well prepared they are for their training events. MUCH better than I and my compatriots were in our time. They'd make any Mom and Dad proud and they make it easy for me to love my job!