The New Year makes it three-and-a-half years since I retired from the Marine Corps. I've had a few challenges, but I was still better off than a lot of folks. I had a couple of degrees to my name and a transferable skill from the military. But as in anything, somebody always has it easier than you and somebody always has it tougher.
Some people seem to live charmed lives and are Instagram-worthy at all times. It's alright to hate those people, by the way. Others stumble so badly as civilians you wonder how they managed to successfully navigate the frozen food section at the commissary without starving to death.
I don't claim to have any special insight other than a combination of stumbling and success, which might be the right combination of experiences to give others some tips.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been playing coy since it first announced that new veterans identification cards — wallet-sized IDs that allow people to prove their military service without a copy of their DD214 — will become available to former service members beginning in November, revealing details about the application process in piecemeal. Now the department has graced us with a little more information.
