What missed opportunities do you regret?

[Stearmen]

I have learned not to dwell on missed opportunities in my life, from a friend of mine, the late Ed Kretz Jr. He was the son of Iron Man Ed Kretz Sr. who won both the inaugural Daytona 200 and Laconia motorcycle races. Eddy also won a lot of races, when Steve McQueen could not race in the 1965 ISDT he called Eddy to replace him! Now you are asking, what does this have to do with missed opportunities? In 1950, he raced at the Daytona 200, led every lap but the final, when his Indian ran out of oil and seized! I asked if he was bitter over that, he just said, "oh well!" So, other then sickness and death, I don't sweat it any more.

 

[AmateisGal]

You didn't even need to be a janitor to be a menace. At that same radio job, I took the time to get to know the paths of all the ventilation ducts in the building, and when it came time for me to bid farewell to this particular General Manager and move on to another job, I was able to leave him a parting gift -- half a ham sandwich and an orange, jammed up inside the ducts that blew fresh air into his office. Within a few days of my departure, I am told, he was driven into a rage by a vast and swelling cloud of fruit flies.

Hahaha! Oh, Lizzie, that is hilarious!

 

[Shangas]

Things I regret missing usually relate to things I wish I could have bought, had the chance, and turned it down for one reason or another, and never got the chance again.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I had a shot for a direct commission as an Army JAG Corps officer after law school and turned it down. Like a damned fool, I wanted to "earn" my commission and go Marine: that didn't work out because the ol' BP was through the roof when I reported to Quantico. At 27 I was physically "too old" for OCS. Professionally, things worked out better doing what I did, but I often wonder what "might have been" had I stayed in for my 20 years and retired as a Lt. Col. or Col. One thing is certain: military pensions are not the pot of gold that many civilians think, and financially, things worked out for the best as well.

 

[Ticklishchap]

I had a shot for a direct commission as an Army JAG Corps officer after law school and turned it down..

How did that work? Were you offered the Commission or just consider applying for it?

 

[ChiTownScion]

How did that work? Were you offered the Commission or just consider applying for it?

It would have been mine for the asking: the OSO was a fellow student enrolled in an LLM program at my school, and back then, few law school grads wanted any part of the military.


No real grounds for bitching on my part as I have said... but I think that I'd have been a good officer and would have been grateful for the opportunity to serve.

 

[Ticklishchap]

It would have been mine for the asking: the OSO was a fellow student enrolled in an LLM program at my school, and back then, few law school grads wanted any part of the military.
No real grounds for bitching on my part as I have said... but I think that I'd have been a good officer and would have been grateful for the opportunity to serve.

I'm sure you would have been a good officer. Was that the Vietnam era? That would explain why few law grads would want to have anything to do with the military.

I enjoyed CCF at high school and OTC (Officers' Training Corps) in my first year at university, but found that it took up too much of my time and my interests shifted. Looking back I feel I should have persisted with it.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

In the Army you have a lot more spare time than most would imagine. When I was stationed at Ft. Bragg in 1968 I could have gone to a flight school at nextdoor Pope AFB. For the modest price of the fuel used in training, I could have learned to fly and got a small-craft license which would have stood me in good stead for all the years since. I applied my time, pay and attention to beer instead.

 

[Ticklishchap]

I hope you're still enjoying your beer. ... I've been to the much less famous Fort Bragg, in northern California. It was a strange redneck enclave near Mendocino and surrounding towns which seemed to consist of wealthy hippies and New Age practitioners who had moved up from the Bay Area. The redwood forests were within easy reach.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Straight out of high school, when I was a very green private in boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, they hauled me into an office one day and said "We've been looking over your test scores. How would you like to go to West Point and become an officer?" I said "what would my commitment be?" They explained that after graduation (4 years) I'd have to commit to another 6. (That's my recollection, at any rate.) They didn't give me the opportunity to call my parents or anyone else. They needed to know immediately. Being in boot camp (i.e.- feeling miserable) and already signed up for 4 years, I felt I had already made one mistake, so I said "no." (All this was peacetime, after the Vietnam War had just ended.)

No regrets, but I do sometimes wonder how my life would be different if I had said "yes".

 

[Fading Fast]

Straight out of high school, when I was a very green private in boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, they hauled me into an office one day and said "We've been looking over your test scores. How would you like to go to West Point and become an officer?" I said "what would my commitment be?" They explained that after graduation (4 years) I'd have to commit to another 6. (That's my recollection, at any rate.) They didn't give me the opportunity to call my parents or anyone else. They needed to know immediately. Being in boot camp (i.e.- feeling miserable) and already signed up for 4 years, I felt I had already made one mistake, so I said "no." (All this was peacetime, after the Vietnam War had just ended.)

No regrets, but I do sometimes wonder how my life would be different if I had said "yes".

Amazing that they wouldn't give you some - even a day - time to think it over.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Straight out of high school, when I was a very green private in boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, they hauled me into an office one day and said "We've been looking over your test scores. How would you like to go to West Point and become an officer?" I said "what would my commitment be?" They explained that after graduation (4 years) I'd have to commit to another 6. (That's my recollection, at any rate.) They didn't give me the opportunity to call my parents or anyone else. They needed to know immediately. Being in boot camp (i.e.- feeling miserable) and already signed up for 4 years, I felt I had already made one mistake, so I said "no." (All this was peacetime, after the Vietnam War had just ended.)

No regrets, but I do sometimes wonder how my life would be different if I had said "yes".

It is, as Mr Fading Fast says, strange that they didn't give you a chance to change your mind, especially given your age and the fact that (I think you said in another post) you come from a military family.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Amazing that they wouldn't give you some - even a day - time to think it over.

I'm sure that part of the blame was mine. At that point I was already so intimidated by drill sergeants and officers that I didn't dare ask for time to think about it. I was as young and clueless as it was possible to be. In the long run, everything worked out just fine. Still, one always wonders about the road not taken.

Ticklishchap: Yes, my older brother had served as a UH-1 pilot in Vietnam.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Ticklishchap: Yes, my older brother had served as a UH-1 pilot in Vietnam.

Did that have any bearing on your decision and possible reluctance to commit yourself?

 

[Tiki Tom]

Not really. In our family it was just traditional that the boys would go into the military so that (ironically) college would be paid for via the new G.I. bill. After serving four years, I attended UCLA. So all's well that ends well, I guess. (Also met my wife while at university; something that wouldn't have happened had I gone the other route!)

 

[Ticklishchap]

Congratulations: I have several friends who are UCLA graduates and they all speak well of it.
The GI Bill was a fine institution.

 

[Harp]

Straight out of high school, when I was a very green private in boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, they hauled me into an office one day and said "We've been looking over your test scores. How would you like to go to West Point and become an officer?" I said "what would my commitment be?"

This occurred to me at Ft Polk, Louisiana but I had been a discipline problem in a male Christian Brothers school, and slated Vietnam instead.
Towards the end of my hitch the Army changed its mind and pitched the career angle but by then it was too late.
College on the GI Bill was difficult, but I finished my baccalaureate on academic scholarship. A late bloomer who drank the "smoke of the scholar's lamp."

 

[Ticklishchap]

This occurred to me at Ft Polk, Louisiana but I had been a discipline problem in a male Christian Brothers school, and slated Vietnam instead.
Towards the end of my hitch the Army changed its mind and pitched the career angle but by then it was too late.
College on the GI Bill was difficult, but I finished my baccalaureate on academic scholarship. A late bloomer who drank the "smoke of the scholar's lamp."

Many of the best scholars are 'late bloomers.

 

[scotrace]

Cynthia Kennedy, 1982. What a dunce I was.

 

[Fading Fast]

Cynthia Kennedy, 1982. What a dunce I was.

Almost all of us have a few of those. Here's one of mine:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/the-memory-worm.87111/#post-2151744