Here is a short story former military folks can relate to. The U.S. Navy warship USS Kitty Hawk, the last conventional-powered (fossil-fuel fired) aircraft carrier, embarked on its final voyage last year, leaving Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., heading to a shipbreaking company in Brownsville, Texas. The current fleet is made up entirely of nuclear-powered carriers.

The ship was to be decommissioned after 48 years of service, having been stored in mothballs for over a decade. Launched in 1960, the Kitty Hawk conducted missions in combat operations in support of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The ship later served as the only forward-deployed carrier for 10 years. This sounds like quite the resume builder if you ask me.

Because the Kitty Hawk is much too large to traverse the Panama Canal, the “Battle Cat” will make its final journey to Texas via the Strait of Magellan, around the tip of South America. The trip would take over 130 days.

This aircraft carrier is the last of the Kitty Hawk-class carriers, as the other two ships, the USS John F. Kennedy and the USS America were either scrapped or scuttled. The aforementioned aircraft carriers may have left service, but they live on as a sunken reef for a new aquatic ecosystem to thrive in, scrapped metal to be recycled into the new classes of warships, and to serve, one last time, as a floating life-size target, so a new generation of Naval gunners and pilots could hone their skills.

“Old Soldiers don’t die; they just fade away” goes one old cliche. Many former military try to find themselves a comfortable place to settle.

This place will be full of memories (hopefully pleasant) and memorabilia (my spousal unit refers to this collection as “My Junk”).

There will also be a fridge of ice-cold beer. Granted, this fridge may be consigned to the garage (as in my case), but it will always open up to family and friends…and the occasional contractor working on the house. A former Grunt, Gob, Jarhead, FlyBoy, Coastie should not just waste their remaining years on this planet.

Many start a new career, some go back and finish the college degree started in 1975 (that would be me). Others prefer to just sit and read a book or twenty, in between binge-watching TV series and movies they never saw because they were “away” or “On Duty” or “TDY.”

There are grandchildren to spoil (This one has been my personal favorite). Many take pleasure in the number of projects around the house that can be ignored a bit longer. As with the journey of the USS Kitty Hawk, the “finding a comfortable place” can be, and usually is a long, drawn-out process. There are obvious difficulties, but the personal rewards are well worth the effort.

You may be finished with the military, but you sure do not have to be finished with your life. And, oh yeah, someone else will still be telling you what to do.

George Keck is a retired Army Staff Sergeant, drummer, and former Tidioute and Warren resident.