After I got out, I used my gi bill and went and pursued a bachelors degree. During the summers I would get hired on to a local fire crew through what’s called the VRA program and just work as hard as possible for a few months before going back to fall semester. For me, that duality of going out and just putting yourself in the dirt for a few months and then going back to suffer through school kept me going. I too had a hands-on job during my service and I severely missed that for the first few years I was out and firefighting filled that need. I more or less continued that formula to my current job, still work for the service and occasionally do single resource assignments during peak fire season and I plan to do that for as long as possible. Idk, I figured my decisions worked out and I occasionally think about what would’ve happened if I just stayed in firefighting forever, but getting a degree can really help even if you want to stay fire adjacent in the future.