Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
No one is going to spend 18 years in service and then transfer to the National Guard. 20 years is retirement, and someone who made 18 years will stick out the last two unless disabled by injury or drummed out of the service (in either case, they would not be National Guard). Now, someone could spend 10 years as active (making E-7) and then make E-9 after 8 years in the National Guard, but that would be unusual because anyone who can make E-7 in 10 years usually has patrons that will help their military career (usually because they will make the best officers when they decide to make the transition).
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Danny didn't leave the US Army after 18 years of service, he left it after 25 years. Danny spent 18 years in Special Forces before transferring to the National Guard, but he'd already been in the Army for seven years before becoming a Green Beret in 1990. So he already had the right to a pension when he left.
Daniels had made Master Sergeant in the 3rd SFG and he'd been planning to reach Sergeant-Major in the Army, staying as long as they let him, ideally around the Special Forces community. A serious injury sustained in a training accident in 2008 convinced Danny to retire from active duty service after 25 years, at age 43 and with major knee and back problems.
As it turned out, Danny really did not like retirement, most of all because he missed being around SOF operators and having access to the kind of toys that he'd started to take for granted. So, after only a few months as civilian, Danny started trying to get back into the service. The Army would no doubt have taken him again, but not assigned him to an operational Special Forces unit, not at his age and with his bum knees, bad back and still recovering from injuries.
Besides, Danny didn't mind the challenge of transitioning to a civilian career and already had some good offers, but he just wanted to be able to retain a connection with the SOF community and get the opportunity to enjoy a few weekends a year playing with the kind of toys he'd never be able to buy* in civilian life.
I'm assuming that Danny felt that National Guard service in the 20th SFG might have fewer barriers to entry than returning to the United States Army Special Forces, in light of his age and injuries. Danny could probably pass a physical for military service, even with his injuries, but he could not have convinced a doctor or any sensible officer that he was still able to serve in an operational Special Forces Group, not if he had to retain an airborne qualification to do so.
After a couple of years as a desk-bound senior NCO in the National Guard, doing recruiting, designing course material for communication sergeants, contributing to a training manual or equally exciting stuff, Danny would have been doing well enough in his civilian life to be able to afford top-notch reconstructive surgery considerably more expensive than what he'd had when he was first injured.
After numerous surgeries at top-notch hospitals, Danny had even recovered well enough to be capable of passing any physical that a 45-year-old NCO could be required to pass in order to be assigned to more exciting duty stations for his National Guard service, ones where he sometimes got to take part in the most fun kind of training. Specifically, Danny could have maintained his jump qualification again from 2010-2011, as well as being physically capable of at least trying to keep up with thirty year old athletes doing special operations type stuff.
Danny didn't retire from the National Guard until he was literally forced by law to do so, which my research indicated would happen after 34 years of service, counting both his US Army and National Guard service. That would be in 2017. Then he'd be 52 and, ironically, a lot healthier and in better shape than he was when he first joined the National Guard in 2008.
*No matter how well you do as a security consultant, you're not going to be buying the kind of communications gear, weaponry or helicopters and other vehicles that a Special Forces Group has access to, even if only a National Guard one.