New Guy....sort of..
 

Let me introduce myself...Obviously my name is Chris. I am in the Air Force and have been for 12 years now. I am seriously thinking about seperating and hitting the road. My family is used to seperation and driving a regional run, I would probably be home more days per year. I have about 6 yeaars of driving experience. I hauled gas part time until I had to go to Korea for a year. While I was gone my hazmat expired and now they require a back ground check yada yada to get it. I was at a job fair this weekend and talked to a guy from Fedex. I am seriously thinking leasing on with Fedex Custom Critical or a local flatbed company. The Fedex guy talked a good game but can you really make a living doing it? I realize I can't go out and buy a new truck and all. I'm looking at used to start. Any info or opinions appreciated and accepted.

Chris

personally, i would work for a company for a while, then decided if you can really make money( with the miles you are running) and then you can buy a truck...

Its easier to sell a truck you don't have that one you shouldn't have.

dont you have 8 more years to go before full military retirement?

Chris,

I think you are at Moody and I can understand your dislike there, I spent two years of hell there, to many deployments. With 12 years, realy think hard about it. I just retired and that retire pay check makes things very livable on the outside. Try to PCS. Whats your carrer field? Remember this Iraq and Afg is winding down and things should get a bit calmer.

I am a 2E2. I work on base network equipment, Cisco mainly. I hate the job and I am not able to cross train because we are criticaly manned all the time. I really need to do something I enjoy. It's not the deployments, that's part of the job, I just don't enjoy doing it. It doesn't look as if I'll get orders anytime soon either. It's a huge decision and I haven't committed either way yet. Weighing all my options and trying to get some input. That's how I found this site. It's awesome so far.

brother stay the course. i recently retire from a police dept. at the age of 43 and have a pension and medical benefits. It's a great feeling knowing you can do what you want and there will be a paycheck in the mail everymonth. I too was frustrated on the job after 10 yrs. but when it's over, it's over. Those 8 yrs. left will go by faster than you realize.

8 years you can do it standing on your head. Go special duty IE postal or something. If you cant go special duty then PCS, when u get the assignment things will be looking good and maybe a change will do you some good. I cant tell you how glad I am I stayed. 8 years is noting and the reward is a life time

Chris,

Like others have said, stay the course. You can stand on your head for eight more years. The benefits are too many to walk away from now. Consider the fact that you may end up in a position you hate far more than the one you are currently in.

Good Luck with your decision.

It's a different Air Force. If I enjoyed my job it would be one thing but I don't. Not one aspect do I like. I really enjoyed trucking when I was doing it. I may not sign a truck on first off. I want to be a company driver for a while until I get back in the swing of things. I'm sure it has changed. By reading this forum I know now that I for sure do want to lease a truck from a company. I don't mind being out 2 weeks at a time and a know a truck isn't any worse than a tent. I also realise that retirement hanging over my head would be nice to have. Decisions, decisions...

I can also be in the reserves and retain my retirement benefits.