Soo...sorry for the title...don't mean it to be abrasive. But before I tell you the gist of what I mean....let me clear up a couple things about myself....First my screen name....couldn't for the life of me think of what I wanted it to be. So I figured I'd just throw up there one of my many jobs I had in my many years on this planet. B52 TailGunner was one of several careers I had during my 24 years in the US Air Force.....I'll throw up a blast from the past here.....
Now the pic above was actually after my stint as a gunner when they eliminated the gunners position in 1991, and I evolved from gunner to an airborne radio operator, and finally I "punched out" of the military in 1997. Last thing I'll say about my military career was that my highlight during that time was serving as one of the radio operators for Gen (Stormin) Norman Swartzkopf until he retired.
So once I returned to civilian life in 1997, like many of us retiree's, I pondered what was next at this stage in my life. I still considered myself young enough to dive into a second career that would take me to "retirement age", which funny enough is now..but I still can't fathom retiring as I would go crazy!!!! So my thoughts were, I'll see about getting another government job, you know, take my military skills and turn that into a civil service job on a military base somewhere. Yea...I'll be a "double dipper", and when I retire I'll get not just one pension, but TWO pensions, (and probably social security if it's still around)!! What could be better....then I can take it easy into my golden years!! Well...I applied for several positions, and figured, I got this!! This is gonna be great, and in the meantime until I get the call that I've got a job, I'll just work around the house...take care of much needed improvements, get all the "honey do's" done, and just relax after 24 years of being deployed, flying and spending time away from the family.
Well...to make a long story short..or shorter..one month turned to two, two to three, three to six!! WTH, how can someone with my skillset not get another government job, after all..I was a tailgunner for like 10 years, and airborne radio operator for another 14!! I even served with Stormin Norman!!!
Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that my aspiration to be a double dipper was probably not going to work out. And I was getting BORED not working. Not to mention, kinda missed having a paycheck every two weeks. SO...what did I want to do? I kinda always wanted to open my own business, and back in 1998, cell phones were really starting to be the rage. So I though, hey, I've had communications experience in the military, this would be perfect!! I'll become a cell phone dealer!! So I got started that year.....do you remember these.....
Ahhhh...those were the days....I was killing it....loved the business, and ended up opening up 17 retail locations throughout Georgia and Alabama, selling service for all the major carriers back then....not sure if some of you remember Cingular, Powertel, or Nextel!! Actually Nextel was my most successful, was crushing it back then with "hit me up with my chirp chirp"! Loved those phones (I know, some people couldn't stand to hear that anyone taking on that obnoxious radio, but it had a cool factor if you had one)!
So anyway, I did this until 2008, almost 10 years....until....SPRINT came along and screwed up everything by buying out Nextel!! That ruined the market for many of us 3rd party dealers, so I ended up selling out, or downsizing my locations, until I sold my last one in 2008!
So I took a needed hiatus, taking a break, back to relaxing for bit! That turned into almost a year of relaxing, and thought to myself, I need to get off my %$%!! So I made some phone calls to some of my old contacts from the wireless world, hit up some contacts in Linked In, and was offered a position on the "dark side"! To those of us that were in the old dealer network, that meant working for corporate. So I took a job that leveraged my experience running multiple units and eventually ended up covering a territory of 5 states, Puerto Rico and Guantanamo. So yep...on the road a lot now. So here I am now...in my travel mode......
SOOOO after that boring summarization, and your probably saying, "c'mon man, get to it, how can you save me money"? Since my background now for the last 20 years has been in wireless, and still is, I sometimes have info about "special promotions" that are, or will be running shortly in the future, that revolves around new handsets or plans, for ALL 4 of the major carriers. Not only that, I'm pretty much considered a SME, subject matter expert, around new handsets that are already fielded, or soon to be fielded, as well as possible launch dates. If your a handset geek, like I am now, and your interested in the latest and greatest phones, have any questions, give me a follow, and I'll return yours. I'll be periodically putting out the latest deals, from the major carriers, as well as the big box stores like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Etc. Even some online deals as well. Now understand, some of this info, especially exact launch dates are kept close to the chest, but I can get you close.
So that's about it fellow Steemite's (am I saying that right?) Hope this wasn't too long and boring and you got to read thru the whole thing. By the way....I've just recently gotten into the whole crypto scene over the last 3 months, so that has been taking up some of my time! It's an enigma to me, but slowly getting to understand it better....after all, how else did I end up here!!!
Looking forward to having conversations and building relationships with you. As I understand it, if you liked my first intro, please give me a vote, and I'll for sure return the favor.
Take Care....Steve