Introduction

I started this blog to capture what it was like for me when ETSing from the U.S. Army.  For a lot of us, it can be a difficult process for many reasons.  Maybe you believe your command will not react favorably to you when you announce your decision, or maybe the idea of the great unknown outside of Army life is too much.  For me, the biggest hurdle to starting the process was inside myself.  I was raised to believe that quitting was not something a self-respecting person does; and ETSing felt a lot like quitting.

Serving in the military is more than just a job, it is a 24/7/365 commitment.  It is all-consuming, fast-paced, and demanding.  It is a lifestyle.  Army life is extremely hard on us, and just because something is hard isn't a good reason to quit doing it.  But Army life is also hard on our families and our loved ones.  I began to see that I could no longer ask my family, the people I cared about most in the world, to continue to make the sacrifices required.  They were my number one priority.

The polar shift, the critical moment for me was when my son was conceived.  It took me almost a full year to realize it, but being a father changed my entire world view.  I knew that it was my responsibility to bring this kiddo up right, to be there to teach him, to make sure he becomes a person that will contribute to the world.  Time and time again the Army ordered me to be absent, kept me from being present for him and my wife.  And I don't even mean deployments but even the little tasks, the midnight phone calls, the daily issues that seemed less and less important relative to my family.  Little frustrations began to add up, and that's when I knew that I would not be able to do my job the way the Army needed it to be done.  Little by little I was unwittingly leaving the Army Team and became part of the Jeremy and Stephanie Team.  I decided it was best for everyone involved to make that transition official.

When I began to search on the internet about the process of ETSing (Early Termination of Service, also called UQR or Unqualified Resignation) at the end of my active duty service obligation, I found some helpful information but it seemed there was a lot more about the process I needed to learn.  I thought that my experiences might help someone else down the road, so I am recording them here.  If you have any specific questions about part of the process, or even my specific experiences, please feel free to comment or send me a message.  While I intend to make this about the process I went through, I do not intend to hide behind the anonymity of the internet.  If any Army official reading these posts wants details about my personal experiences, I am happy to provide them in the hopes that we can work to improve life inside the Army and the processes with which Soldiers are faced.  I am grateful that there are as many in America willing to volunteer for the difficult life of serving their country in the armed forces, and I am grateful that they allowed me to serve with them.