The last....

Each day since 15 February of this year has been the last February 15th, the last 2 November that I would be in the military, and the other day, besides being the last whatever day it was, I took my last APFT, or Army Physical Fitness Test.
I didn't successfully complete it by Army standards, but as far as I am concerned I did, simply because I did it when I didn't have to in the first place. Because I am as close to retiring as I am and all that from the military I guess I didn't have to, but I felt like I had to do it, for myself and to support my fellow Soldiers. It was the first PT test I didn't pass since I have been mobilized, and because I am where I am at in the military I didn't work at the PT test as hard I need to in order to successfully pass it by the Army's Standards, which I am OK with that and I think that my fellow Soldiers are OK with it too.
The AFPT consists of three events which are meant to test your strength and endurance. Each event has a minimum standard in which you are scored, the minimum standard point value for each event is 60 points, while the maximum point value is 100 points. It's scored according to your age and gender.
The first event is the "push up", which is basically to see how many push ups you can do in two minutes. I did 36, which exceeds standards. The next event is the "sit up", which is done just like the push up event, but you are doing sit ups, I did 50, which exceeds Army standards a fair amount. The last event, is the one that has always troubled me, and that's the "2 mile run", it's the one that I have always need the most work on prior to the test, and it's the one that I didn't do so well on the other day, by Army standards that is...

Anyway...
I am proud of my service, to our great country, by next February 14 I will have been in the military for almost 21 years. I have meet and worked with a lot of great people during those 21 years. I think I am proudest of the past four years though, during my mobilization, it's been the most challenging and the most rewarding in many ways.
It's just that I am ready to move on from the military, and am looking forward to the last February 14th that i I will be in the military.

A few last things, before I end this post.
I'd like to thank Mirinda, for being a most excellent Army wife, even though we haven't been together through my entire military experience, ending it with her has made these past few years even better and sometimes bearable.
I'd also like to thank METALLICA for the free tickets to tomorrow night's show, the band gave several tickets to service members the other day. I saw them for the first time early in my military experience, so it's a nice way to go out!
METALLICA ROCKS!!!!!!
And Mirinda RULES!!!!!!!!!!!
Brian