The Mission Comes First

One thing that negatively affects our transitions out of the military is that we naively believe the military cares about what we do next.

There was no time in military lives, where the military cared more about what we did next, than the day signed the dotted line.

That dotted line was a contract. And that contract was step one of “the mission comes first”.

See the military is in the recruiting business. Not the transition business. Sure they have transition programs; TAPs/ACAPs, etc. But how long do those last? 2 weeks?

Think back to Basic Military Training. Prior to day one as a recruit the military was already investing in you. From the medicals at the MEPs station, to the plane and bus trip, to your first meal in the dinning facility.

Think of you career training. From your specific field training, to your leadership development, and deployment readiness — the military heavily invested your assurance that “the mission comes first”.

How much of an investment of time, money, and resources is spent each active duty member towards the “mission”?

How much of an investment of time, money, and resources was spent on your power-point slides, briefings from a company who won the lowest bid, who hired a contractor for minimum wage, to regurgitate the same exact boring text book Smitty, Johnson, and Jones stationed in Minot, Bragg, and Pendleton last month?

What happens at your unit the day you take the uniform off for the last time? Someone else shows up and “the mission comes first”. Rinse repeat. Rinse repeat.

So what’s my point?

Nobody is coming to save your ass. They are busy with the “mission”. And let’s face it WTF to they know about life on the outside? They’re still suiting up in the uniform tomorrow.

There’s no playbook and no guru system to achieving a world-class transition, but we Crushers are here building what we wish existed when we got out.

Why?

First off, it’s obvious the cavalry ain’t coming. They are all busy with the “mission”.

And you think it is, in the form of a GS job, think again — those are slots already have a good ole boy picked for them. Everyone else has the same “idea”. Even if you do land one, is that really the height of you’ve life’s aspiration? (side-note: someone from last unit, who ETS’d in 2014 is still waiting for a GS position)

Second, having our brother’s and sister’s backs shouldn’t end when the uniform comes off. If just one of our shared lessons and experiences help you live a more fulfilling post-military life, this community is worth the time we put into it.

Lastly, it’s rough out there. We don’t want to see you jobless, holding a sign on the street homeless, or even worse. We have lots of mental shifts to make as we return to civilian life.

The sooner you accept that the responsibility of your military transition rests on you and you alone, you can begin to adopt more life changing mental models — and crush your transition. Are you putting YOUR post-military mission first?