S2E31 - Retirement Checks, Carnivore Diets, and VFW Realizations

In S2E31, we bring on our old friend Chance Cunningham and catch up on life after the Air Force. We talk about Chance retiring out of Fairchild, getting medically retired after 21 and a half years, rolling straight into his VA rating, and what it feels like to finally collect the retirement we all beat ourselves up for. From there, we get into kids, college, GI Bill benefits, CCAF/EPR bullet chasing, Course 14/15, NCOA, Crash School, online classes, and why some of us just wanted to do the job without all the extra blue nonsense. We also talk Volkswagens, Mustangs, project cars, welding floor pans, Texas heat versus UK houses with no AC, weight loss, carnivore dieting, Ozempic-style shots, and how retirement can quietly get lonely when you go from seeing your people every day to barely knowing anyone nearby. That leads into a surprisingly honest VFW realization: maybe all those old heads weren’t just sitting around telling stories for no reason — maybe they missed the same thing we’re starting to miss now. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's going on everybody? It's Ian.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

And this is Robbie. And we're two assholes in a mic.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Today we got on a friend of ours, Chance Cunningham. He was a fellow crew chief. He was an honorary crew chief. He did he did uh work with us crew chiefs a lot. Iany guy. So Chance, welcome. Um Thanks. So what's up, dude? It's been it's gonna be good to catch up. Yeah, man, it's been a while. Yeah, dude, it has been a while. I love your fucking beard. Oh, I appreciate it. Yeah, I love it, dude. Yeah, actually you have hair too. Yeah. That must be nice. Yeah, I remember it being nice and short last time. But uh yeah, what's been up? What's what you been up to?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Not much, man. Uh retired December 2024, stayed in Spokane because I I got last station up at Fairchild. Yeah, yeah. 135 base, it was it was alright. Uh I missed 130s with my my first plane. 16s were fun. I guess we were a little bit more tighter there than anything. But now just living the retired life, don't work, mooching off the government basically.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Uh you said mooching, but uh always I've said to Robin, I've said to other people, like we we put in our time, man, we put in our fucking blood, sweat, and tears. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've definitely given a lot of our physical fucking abilities to the goddamn government. Yeah. Yeah, I do get medical retired, so okay. I'll take it. What how so how long how long were you in before you actually got medically retired? Like how much how much longer did you have left? Oh, I I was in for 21 and a half. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

So I I actually hit the button to retire, and then a month later they canceled it. It was like, oh, you're gonna get medical retired instead. So I was like, whatever, I'm past 20, just give me the money.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Yeah, yeah, that's weird. So what the f why the fuck would they do that? You would think they just let you retire.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Yeah, so the PCM I had was a douchebag. He like, I don't know how I was gonna explain him. He was just a douchebag, but I ended up having like uh two hip surgeries in like six months, and I still need a hip replacement, my shoulders fucked up. So I don't know. I didn't know I don't know what the point of it was because I still uh retired past the point I was initially retired. Like I was supposed to retire September 1st of 24, but ended up retiring December 8th of 24. So it didn't really matter whatsoever. Uh the only good thing about it was I got a VA rating right before before I got out. So I didn't have to wait, all my VA stuff was taken care of. I rolled right into the paycheck. So it's kind of nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

I get was the Pebble office pretty good there at uh Fairchild then?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, the guy here uh was awesome actually. So nice, nice. That's good. A lot of people have fucking issues with their Pebble office. Yeah, yeah. That's good. So you still you still collect retirement and disability or just just your Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Okay, since I was past 20, I got my retirement and um VA disability. So I got 100% uh with all my shit because I had my back, my knee, my ankle, all that bullshit. And then uh regular I only had about two years of master because I was told every tell everyone I sold out for the stripe because I was done. I was just wanted out at my 20, and then at my 19 year mark, they made met I made master, so I was like, fuck, now I gotta stay for at least two more years.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

So that was funny. I was uh I think I was uh surprised I made it as far as I did. I like well I I don't say surprised, I I worked my ass off, but like I always told myself, all right man, staff starting, you can retire at 20 and you'll be fine. So just stay a staff forever. And then I made tech and then made master shortly after that, and then I just stayed master and retired. Yep, just knew it was time.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't get my ass earlier because with all my back shit and my knee, like I slid through the cracks in the Air Force. I don't know how I did it.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Hey, somebody's gonna somebody's gotta do it right.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

I can oh yeah, I worked it. I worked at my best.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I kind of did the same thing with the the select the bases that I got to and the things that I did and stuff. I wouldn't say I slid through the cracks because I did work, you know. I mean, nothing medically or anything like that, but you know, I was at Nellis for six years, uh, and then Misawa for four, and then Edwards for five, and then uh plant four for another however many years to retire. Yeah, you know what I mean? So I kind of no, because that I don't think that equals 21, but you know, somewhere in there some years, and there's 21 of them.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah, yes, because you said you said Nellis, you said Nell's for six and Massawa for four, that's ten, Edwards for five, and then be from Dallas for six, six or seven.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah, because I've been here nine years now, so yeah. Long as I've been anywhere, period. Is here now. Yeah, I guess that makes me Texan. No, just kidding, all you Texans out there, but I do consider myself Alaskan still.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Oh no, my door's open. So uh how's your little one?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

She's good, man. She's getting big. She's uh she'll be two on the eighth for July 8th. She's at daycare now. She at her uh 18 month appointment, she measured at 2'11 at 18 months, and me and the wife just measured not long ago. She was already like, I think it was like three foot one. Yeah. So her 24-month appointment, she's she's tall.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Man, you're a fucking jelly green giant, so it's not surprising. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Did you just get a spam call, Robbie? Yes. I love those spam calls.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

I was asking how tall he was.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Oh, you're good. No, uh, I'm 6'3.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Not as tall as Chris, then yeah. Chris is what, 6'5?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Chris Smith, yeah. He's he's tall and lanky though.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah, yeah. Not scary at all. He's 6'5 and and not scary. Sorry, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Sorry, not sorry.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Sorry, not sorry.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, and then uh, so yeah, you said almost almost two in July, and then you got your oldest. How would your oldest is lit like close to 20, isn't she?

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yeah, she turned she turned 19 back on May 1st. Uh, she moved up here back in April. So uh she's uh going starting college. Well, starting college again. She already did one year of college. Um and then she did one a college year during her senior year, too. So she's going into another year of college come uh this spring. So nice, nice. It'll be nice. Uh she's enjoying, I think. The chapter chapter 35 stuff, right? Yeah, she's using my GI Bill, so I transferred my GI Bill to her, so she's gonna use some of that first. And then yeah, in the state of Washington, she's she's actually gonna be going to Oregon State, so she can't use that unless she goes to an uh uh Washington college state college. So I mean it's still fine.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Like Yeah, she's using that GI Bill, so yeah, yeah, she'll be fine with hers. That's cool. Yeah, I don't know what my daughter's gonna do yet. She's just turned 17 a week ago, and uh she doesn't have a clue. So I mean I didn't either in her age, so I can't really say shit.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

I just joined the military and went from there, but oh yeah, I got a degree because I needed an EPR bullet, that's all I said.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yeah. Did you get a Lid you get you mean uh bachelor's?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, I got I got uh bachelor's for memory rental and like tech technical management. Nice, but like I'm not using it, like it was just for an EPR bullet.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Yeah, that's all like my CCAF was was for an EPR bullet. And then I heard this year that many people didn't uh weren't promotable because they didn't have their CCAF.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, I go back and forth every year.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I was like, what? Holy shit, you saying I could you saying I could have had a chance at making eight? I could have had a chance. I'll shame, I'll quit smoking. No, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

No, not that serious.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

No, it's definitely not that serious. But the uh the the the sound of it is cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah. I don't know. I because it like you said, it keeps going back and forth where there's some years where they're like, oh no, you have to have some type of associate's degree or equivalent to get promoted, and then some years they're like, oh no, we're not doing that this year, and then I guess now they're going back to it.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, I remember when that uh that test came out for NCO's uh course 15 or course 16, whatever it was.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Course 14, course 15, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The the the chief atmosphere at the time, even though it wasn't required, wouldn't promote people unless you had it done. I was like, that's that's dope.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

It became required too for one year of promotions the next year I made it.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, I did course for 14, I think. I did the test and everything, and then the next year I made tech and they got rid of NCO Academy, so I never went to NCO Academy. Yeah, I just which wasn't bad for me. I didn't care. I didn't mind it. I liked it. I didn't have to go. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

I had a fucking blast, man. I went, I was I was at Edwards, um, and it was down here in San Antonio, so I took my 2012 Mustang at the time, drove across country, and I had my own car. Fucking so I was out partying with my classmates and shit every fucking night, dude. It was I had a fucking blast, dude. Yeah, it was it was it was a good time.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

I I did that during crash school.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Oh yeah, got to go out and do shit and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yeah. Yeah, because it was a week, and so I just drove drove from Hall and then up to where was it in San Antonio, and then uh spent a week out there and just fucking went to class and drank in my fucking in the courtyard right outside. But for NCOA, I didn't have to go because yeah, I uh so I had just fucking sewed on and I had just re-enlisted. And so they were you know they were trying to push me. You need to do your course 15, do your course 15. I was like, I'm not, I don't want to fucking do it. Like, oh well, you're not gonna get promoted, you won't be able to get promoted. And I was like, Well, I just fucking just sewed on tech, so it's I'm not gonna be eligible for another couple years anyways. I'll fucking deal with that shit later. Like, oh you're not gonna be able to reenlist then. I was like, bitch, I just reenlisted, so I don't care. So they were mad that I had all these reasons that I was I didn't want to be for my course 15. And then finally they're like, oh, well, if you if you've been in over 12 years and you have your course 15, you're considered legacy and you don't have to go to NCOA. And so I was like, Oh, yeah, I don't have to go to NCOA. Cool, I'm gonna go do my course 15 real quick.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

You should have gone to NCOA, man.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Nah, I don't want to deal with that shit. That's fucking too blue for me.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

It was not it wasn't even that blue. It wasn't that I mean, okay, it was, but I didn't take it that way. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

I didn't want it. I just wanted to stay and do my job.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

You're done.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

That's all I ever wanted to. I didn't care about all that shit.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

I just did it because it was like a six-week fucking camp. That's what it felt like to me, you know. It was like going on summer camp or some shit, you know what I mean? Going out, meet a bunch of friends, hang out, you know, was out literally partying, going out to all the different restaurants and shit. I went to two different um uh diner, drive-ins and dives locations. There was like a fucking Euro truck and then that dough, the pizza Italian thing.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Went to like four different fucking Buffalo Wild Wings because they had them all over the place in San Antonio. I was mad that I get to go to all of them. Yeah, I had a blast uh for my uh NchoA, and then I mean I took the damn class work seriously. I didn't want to get kicked out or anything, you know, but yeah, other than that, it wasn't that serious to me.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Maybe I just fucking always hated that uh I was hated the like the indoctrin I don't want to say indoctrination, the it was just uh that's what it is the re the rebluing, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah, that's what it felt like. It all that was is true, it's all real, you know, but you know, it all goes back away pretty soon, you know. As soon as I was back in the car, you know, driving back to Edwards, I was heading to Chris Smith's house. I was all like, man, fuck all this airport shit. That was true. Driving back to Chris's house, you know. About 20 pounds lighter though, so there was that too. You know, I lost 20 pounds while I was there doing all the exercise, forced you know, exercise and all that shit three times a week. I had they said I had blessed. 10 out of 10 would recommend better than doing fucking I can't I can't stand doing the online shit. I think it's just the way that I learned too. Yeah, you know, like for me, like going into that class setting and getting taught by an instructor or whatever, it's just it just processes better for me than just fucking scrolling through like this fool like graduated with a fucking PhD and fucking like criminal bullshit, criminal bullshit through an online course. I can't, I just fucking can't, dude. If if I'm gonna get a past the CCAF, I gotta go in into a course in a class.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Yeah, if I have to sit down and try to teach, make myself study, I'm the worst at it. I will do everything, I'll procrastinate till as long as possible until I have to do it.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. To be fair, I like most things. I like just getting on with my shit. I liked getting on with my assignments and just fucking getting them done. The only time that I would have appreciated a classroom sitting was I think there was only like fucking two or three classes that I just had no idea what was going on, and I had to use the fucking uh the classroom chat and the classroom fucking the tools to talk talk to the other students, and it turns out everybody else was in the same boat. They just fucking did not understand what was going on.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Is that a car in the background?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

That's not true.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

I was working on my bug.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

I was working on it. I was working on it before you got I got on the call.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

I got a lot of work to do on mine that I am not gonna do for who knows.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, I've been putting this off for way too long. Yeah. I got my beetle behind me, I got uh a 67 Firebird out in my shop, and my 83 Mustang out there too.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Yeah, I got the I got the 60, I got the 65 Beetle, I've got the 66 Mustang, I've got this fucking 23 slingshot that is fucking the paperweight right now. Yeah. And then the fucking the the raptor. I fucking love the ranger raptor. I fucking love that truck, dude. I love it. It's such a little fucking go-kart, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Oh yeah, yeah. My mustang I call my shit stang because it's like two-tone brown with walnut interior. It looks like a turd. You said it's a said it's an 83? Yeah, it's an 83 notchback with T tops.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Ooh, they stopped making a T tops in what 86 or 87? 86? 86, I think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's fucking dope. It's 83, same age as me, obviously. And it's T topped. Yeah. Fuck yeah, dude. I'm fucking T-topped.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Yeah, it's brown with a tan stripe, and then brown again, and it has all walnut interior, which it it looks like. If you saw you're like, that's not a Mustang, I was like, but I like it, it's just unique, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fucking dope. That's dope as shit, man. Mainly because of the year and the fucking teeth when I'm bald, you know. That's cool as hell. I am your Mustang, and now you're gonna think that every time you get in it.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Same same but different.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Fuck my lighter. It's the same same but different. We weigh about the same, or used to, at least, anyways. So what are you doing with that? The Beetle.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Uh, I gotta put a new floor pan in it. The battery was all rusted out. Uh really and I I bought some uh port 15 with the fiberglass. I should have just like patched it up that way. Instead, my dumb ass pulled the whole floor pan. So now I I've got everything cut to fit, so I just gotta uh pop some uh plug welds in it and then um or pop some holes in it and then plug weld it. I don't know if I want to stitch weld it down the side uh or plug weld it the whole way around. So I I know that you're talking about welding things, but other than that, those other words stitch weld is just like going across on a line, basically, from metal to metal, and the plug weld you put a hole all about an inch apart all the way down, and then you fill the hole with uh like welds.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Yeah. That makes sense, that makes sense. And uh those other lame people as well, they'll know now. Lamens, not lame people, lame like a lame people. Well, if they listen to us, they may be lame. They may be lame if they listen to us.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

I just want to have a project again.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Yeah. You can have you gotta have a few of them. You can have a few of them if you move to Texas. Being a bitch. Non-American ass.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Yeah, it has got me thinking the last couple weeks, man. Like, uh, damn it, I just want to fucking get in this house. And then it's fucking stress at work, and then this fucking last three days being hot as fuck with no AC anywhere. Uh-oh, dude. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually fucking drove around in my car just to have a little bit of a fucking break.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

And that's that shit. I'm sweating my fucking moobs off, but guess what's on the other side of that fucking door over there?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Exactly. Fucking 72 degree weather.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Well, 74, but still.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

It's amazing. Yeah, I bumped it up. I'm getting used to this fucking Texas weather. 72 when you were here last year. That's not that no more. It's 74 now. I'm getting fucking chilly in my old fucking age, or I'm just getting used to being here. I've been here nine years now, so I mean, I guess I'm just getting used to the stupid ass heat and comedicity.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

I mean, you lost a lot of weight too, so maybe fucking not having that layer of fat on you.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Oh, 100%. 100. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Yeah, I I feel that.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Yeah, I was I when I retired, I was 318.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

I was about I was 285 when I retired.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah, but you're six foot three, I'm five foot nine.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah, fat.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I don't disagree, but but when you're 318, you know, like a little big old, I look like Violet from fucking uh from fucking Willy Wonka, you know what I'm saying? Just stuffed into my uniform and shit, you know what I mean? I I get what you're saying though. Especially, you know, you're big and tall, right? It probably is worse on your joints and shit, but yeah, especially having back and everything, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. See, I my most of my issues were, I felt like were weight related. And still are now, you know what I mean? Like I still have that flare-ups that all probably stemmed from when I was fat for years in the military. I've been fighting being fat since I joined the military, basically. Once once I could drink alcohol on my own as a damn 18-year-old, you know, and as long as I could get a hold of it, I'd drink it, you know what I mean? And yeah, that's it, it was a battle for a long time. But now I just drink when I eat dinner, you know, I'll have one or two beers and that's it. And I'm yeah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

I can't remember the last time I actually the last time I had a drink, I went was uh with I went to uh Aaron's retirement, and that was the last time I had a drink. Yeah.

unknown 20:06

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

I don't drink much anymore.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah, same.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I've I've also because I'll smoke every night and yeah, I just don't don't go out and drink. Oh, I mean, I I I take that. I mean if Chris and I go out for dinner or something, I might have a drink for dinner. But we do that maybe every other month.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

So we go out a lot. Me and Aaron go out a whole lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

We go out a couple times a week, so see me and my wife did for a while, but we kind of stopped that because that a big thing was me trying to lose weight, so we stopped going out eating all the time. Yeah, I started doing the carnivore diet and shredded weight. Yeah, so yeah, it was great.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Maybe that's what I need to do to like finish off because I've been stuck at like between 205 and 215. I can't get below 205 to save my life.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

I'm at I'm at 230 right now, and I wanted to get down to like 220. Uh so I need to like sit down and like buckle down because after I got to a certain point, I was like, oh I'll eat this a little bit, I'll have that a little bit. So I gotta maintain, but man, I did just carnivore diets, so all meat. That's all I ate. And that sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

It also sounds expensive though.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

It's if you go to cost, I don't know if you guys go to Costco or not, but it's so easy. Because we just did like one of the Chuck Roast of steak, and I just cut up my own steaks from that. Uh pork chops, hamburger, brats, uh fish. Like I just swap it up every day throughout the week.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Dang, we have a Costco five minutes from my house. Yeah. I've been, damn, that sounds good. I might have to talk to Erin about that because she's not supposed to be on carbs either. She's supposed to be, yeah, because she's um got lupus and she's got a couple of other um uh immune diseases that really fucks her up because she has carbs. You know. Not like you know, like she'll flare up with her skin, sometimes she'll have stomach issues. It could be anything and everything, because lupus attacks everything. But anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so I wonder if that's something she'd be interested in, because that'd be I can cook most days of the week, except for two nights. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Eggs. Like I eat I would eat steak and eggs sometimes for lunch, or like I'd go get like sandwich meat and just eat sandwich meat and cheese.

unknown 22:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Because it all depends on how far you take it. So like snack snack uh like pepperonis, I'll do like pepperoni and cheese and just snack on that throughout the day.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Well I'm already on fucking like Ozepic type shit, anyways. So like I don't eat much. I just need to snack on like something healthier protein-wise, you know what I'm saying? That helps with the stomach issues that you get from the shot as well, too. You know, so I cheated. You know, I had no other way to do it than to be assisted. You know, I was just too lazy, he was too depressed, just couldn't fucking do it. You know, I just didn't give a fuck, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah, I never went to the gym through any of this. Most of it's just like me doing stuff around the house, staying busy and active, and then drinking a lot of water, drinking like I bought some um electrolyte supplements because you don't get all the electrolytes from meat. So like I would drink uh water with electrolytes in it. Uh no energy drinks, no sugar, no nothing. I just straight meat and water with electrolytes in it. That's all I have. I've been doing that for I started in March of 25. Uh I dropped 20 pounds real right away, and then the rest of it's just kind of slowly been shredding off since then. Really? Yeah. I I was very like uh hardcore onto it for a while, but then after I got to a certain point, I was like, okay, I'll have some vegetables here and there, uh, maybe like a piece of bread, something like that. But nothing to where I'll just go style. Yeah, nothing to where I'll go out and like eat pizza right away, like have like 10 slices of pizza or anything like that. It was just like one, and then just kind of that's it. Yeah. So more discipline than anything.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Yeah, and that's what's helped me is a little bit of discipline, right? Me and the wife go out to dinner, and instead of us each getting a meal and taking it home and then eating it, we just split a meal. And then we take nothing home. So we're like eliminating like two fucking meals, almost three meals in one. You know what I mean? So that's what like we do. We just split a meal most of the time now. Or like I just get soup and salad when we're going to um whatchamacallit tonight? I'm only getting soup and salad. Like, good luck getting like fat on soup and salad, you know. I mean, you probably could. You probably could, but you're like, you'd have to eat a shit ton of it, you know. So, anyways, I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna have. Aaron will have pasta, but anyways, I don't know why we're even talking about this.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Squirrel.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Squirrel, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

That's that shit I was talking about, though. We're just we'll just go where the conversation takes us. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

It's fun.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Alright, guys, uh so it's about that time. Chance, got anything to to say to the crowd?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Oh man, like we talk about what we were talking about this week, man, with like moving places and like meeting, I guess being the new guy in the new place. Well, I went from Little Rock to see what 30 worlds to 16s where I, you know, you don't know anybody, so you kind of like keep yourself for a while to actually meet people. And then same thing. When I left I I spent six years in Misawa. Uh I wish I was I did two uh three-year, I did an Ipcot essentially, so I did two three-year tours and then moved to Fairchild, and I was like, what was I like 14-15 years at that point, tech sergeant, to where like nobody wants to hang out with the new guy, and then I'm going to the 135 world, you don't really know anybody one year age unless you want to hang out with the airman, right? Which I love I had a lot of cool dudes in my shop, but like I don't know. I think that's part of the reason like with the eating too, like I gained a lot of weight because like I didn't know anyone. I kind of kept myself. You can say a little depression, but like it's more like you're you're kind of on your own for a while to actually get to meet people and hang out. You know, now I've been here eight years now, and like I've seen some people come and go, but everyone has their like their little click, you know. So like you try to like hang out with other people you can, but it's not really like the same when you're an airman or like younger in your career, we can like make friends faster that way.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

I think it's the same for a lot of people. I think Jansen, you and I were talking about this about like not not hanging out with anyone just because you don't know anybody, and it just sucks that yeah, like I I went from hanging out with all the people I loved and all the people I knew every day to moving overseas, and then yeah, now I don't see I don't go to base often. I know like one or two people that are on base, but over time I'm not gonna know anybody that's that's stationed there, and then I'm just gonna, you know, I'm gonna have to either make British friends or continue to enjoy just what I'm doing now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah, like there's a couple guys on base, like when I go on base, I'll say hi to them, but you know, that's most most I see them, you know. Or retire retirement parties, I'll I'll get hit up every once in a while for a going away or retirement party, and I'll see everybody, which is cool, but then like that's that's all you get out of it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Yeah, I didn't retire out of a base. I didn't retire out of a base, so like I had none of that shit. I don't have none of that. I I worked with two other military guys, that was it.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

When I retired from Iraqi.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Uh guys, here there's uh we do like a last Friday now. So some of the the guys who I did work with, uh, last Friday of every month we get together, go out, get some beers, get some food. So that's tonight for me since the last Friday of the month, which is kind of nice. You know, it's a one-day thing, kind of a one time a month kind of thing, but it's still something better than nothing.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah, I would take that right now at this point.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah. You know, I think what kind of fucking uh irks me that I think I've I've caught on pretty early is that you know, I remember my first my first few visits at a VFW, it was just a bunch of old dudes there that were talking about oh back in back in my day, and I and I was still young in my career, and I was like, oh, it's just a bunch of old fucking retired dudes talking about their stories. Like, why the fuck would I want to come to a VFW? And then as I you know, as I get older and then as I uh retire, there's still like a gap between becomes more enticing, huh? Yeah, but it's it's like a gap, it's a gap between what you were doing and what you're gonna be doing. And you're like, ah yeah, I don't know if that's good. And then you get to be old fucking crusties, and then you're like you're looking around, you don't have anyone to hang out with, you have no one to talk to. Now the VFW actually starts to look pretty interesting, right? So then it just perpetuates that cycle where it's just a bunch of old fucking dudes that want to bullshit about the times they spent with the friends that they had and the fucking places they were, and then you have a bunch of young.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

I was doing that a little bit at that poker game.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Yeah, then yeah, now you have a bunch of young dudes looking at you the same way you looked at the old heads when you were at the fucking VMW. So I don't know. Fuck those officers. Yeah, whatever. Whatever. All right, Chen, stay put. Um, you guys take care, stay safe, and we'll catch you catch you later.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Be safe, make good choices. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Bye.