14 years, USAF. 1985 - 1999. I was a secure communications tech. I really enjoyed my time in the AF up until I made E-6. After that they didn’t want me to be a tech anymore, they wanted me to be a manager. I highly recommend it as a way to learn a trade. I’ve been working in telecom ever since I got out.
Glad I’m not the only one. It usually involves being back in the military and not realizing that I’m supposed to be at the airport for troop movement. Last night’s was somewhat different. I had joined up again, but they didn’t have any uniforms my size. 
The uniforms they gave me when it wasn’t a dream weren’t my size either!
Tris
I have the “Oh shit, I got orders” dream about twice a year. I wake up feeling unsettled and off my game for a few hours.
I still have recurring dreams that I’m back on board a submarine.
Back when I was in the Navy, I used to frequently have them then, too. We called them “boat-mares.” The worst kind of boat-mare was when you had a bad dream that you were on board the submarine, and woke up only to find out you were in fact on board the sub! :smack: (And it was invariably time to get up and go relieve the watch.)
I hated my Marine Corps time in the early years. I was going to get out at the end of my enlistment. But then 3 things happened together: we got a new C.O. who was a real hard-charger and a good motivator (my battery needed a good kick in the ass, and he delivered!); I got transferred to my final MOS, FDC (arty); and I picked up Corporal/E-4. Things got really good and I reenlisted when my contract was up.
I still have them too. Usually they suck, but occasionally they’ll be cool, like I was on a submarine commanded by Jean Luc Picard.
When I went to my wife’s Basic Training Graduation, I almost did. When we(her mom and gma and I) got on base, I was hit with a case of homesickness. All US Army bases have a sameness, the color of the street signs, the way the buildings all seem a certain distance apart, clustered and arranged in certain ways that just says “soldiers here”. I didn’t realize how just how much I actually missed all the stuff that seems to get glossed over or whatever, the camaraderie, the sense of security, etc. If I’d been in charge of the car, I probably would have snuck off to find the base retention office sometime that week.
That’s one thing popular media seems to have gotten at least the spirit of it right. Soldiers coming together as a group in ways you don’t see in civilian jobs.
<mumble> decades ago when Moffett Field was still an NAS, it held an open house. When I was ambling the half-mile or so from the public parking area to Hanger One where all the stuff was, I was getting nostalgic seeing the sights. Then I passed by a chow hall, at about 11:00 so lunch-prep was in full swing and the odor hit me. Smell really does have a direct line to your limbic system.
This. I haven’t served on board a submarine in over 20 years, but have gone on a couple of submarine tours in the last couple of years.
In both cases, I was struck with nostalgia as I saw the sights as we entered the sub base and made our way to the piers.
However, it was not until I came onboard and started to climb down the ladder that the unmistakably pungent (but by no means unpleasant, at least for me) odor of amine*, machinery, diesel fuel, etc. hit me. It hit me so hard with associative memories that I almost fell down the hatch.
*used to scrub carbon dioxide from the air
P.S. I spent a week at Moffett Field back in the late '80s as a midshipman flying with a P-3 Orion crew.
We had conscription back in the 80s, so had to serve 15 months in the West German army. It convinced me that in the event of an armed conflict, I would be most useful as a POW.
I had enlisted in the Army and was supposed to go in late Summer 1979 after HS graduation. But then I had a [relatively minor] medical issue in June. They freaked a bit and demanded all these medical tests and hoops to jump through and doctors letters and such in order to get in. I tried to follow through on all the rigamarole but it got ridiculous and eventually Uncle Sam told me to have a nice life.
So in September I went to technical college, worked as a security guard, and started testing for police departments. After a whirlwind romance I got married in January of 1980. Had I entered the service I never would have met my wife.
I got hired as a Deputy Sheriff in 1982 and reached the rank of Detective. I served 25 years and retired in 2007. I worked a part-time patrol gig with another agency just to keep up my certification. But when they offered me full-time I took it. And that’s where I’m at now.
I enlisted in the Army after 9/11, intending to get out once the war was over. . . I’ll be retiring soon.
Funny how that happens, innit?
SARGE!! Why you gotta be goin’ and makin’ feel all old ‘n’ shit?