Fair winds...

Letter I sent at work recently...

-----Original Message-----

From: Witt, David

Sent: August 28, 2012

To:

Subject: Fair winds...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I recently filed for separation from active duty, I will be out next spring. 

I've been planning on writing this letter for a while, and initially I planned it as a long rant listing all of my various grievances against the service, but ultimately decided that isn't what I wanted to spend anyone's time on.

For those of you I've talked with regularly, this is probably not a surprise, and for those of you I haven't, I doubt I have anything that original to rant about, so I don't see a need to focus on the negative at this point. The short version: This service is not the service I thought it was when I first joined. We are not led and managed as I thought we would be; we treat our people badly, and then don't even reward them adequately for the work they do and the risks they take.

Looking back, I have had years in a row where I dreaded going to work rather than looking forward to it; I haven't had fun doing my job in a long time. My current assignment here at Holloman has been the best of my career; this should not necessarily be construed as high praise for Holloman or the quality of life here, but it does beat my time in the Herc and operational RPA flying. From here, I don't see any options available to me that would be better, or even on par with this assignment; all the things in the service that still interest me are either unavailable, or I would have to fight tooth and nail for years just for a chance at them, and I no longer have enough energy for that given what it would cost me.

Finally, while all of the above is true, and more than sufficient on its own, there is also this: There is more to life than effective and efficient flight operations, and I'd really like to experience some of these things, like being near my family, or having some predictability and control over my own day/week/month/year. It has become apparent to me I won't have an opportunity to do this if I stay in, and this has made the decision incredibly easy to make.

It has been an honor and a privilege serving with you all. Of all the things I disliked about my time in, I have never regretted taking on all the world's problems when I had teammates like you to do it with. I know I'm going to miss that on the outside. I miss it already. But not enough to stay.

I wish all of you the best, whatever the future holds for you. It's a small world, and we're bound to cross paths again. I've tried to send this letter to everyone I thought would care, but please feel free to forward on as you see fit. The link to my page below will continue to have current contact information after I'm out, and I've included my phone and email as well. This isn't an end, just a transition, and I look forward to talking with all of you from the other side.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Dave

(Link to my intellipedia page.)