When spouse put in her retirement papers last month we cleaned out all our uniforms. Now we're looking around to see what else can change.
I've been reading the U.S. Naval Institute's PROCEEDINGS magazine since 1978 and I've had a $495 "life" membership since 1982. Considering everything that I've enjoyed from the magazine (and from USNI's book catalog) I feel I've received full value for my money.
But it got better. When I retired in 2002 I suddenly realized that I could just read the magazine for fun, not professional enhancement. I no longer had to [-]give a damn[/-] care so much about network-centric warfare or the CNO's top five or the future of battlespace dominance. That guilty pleasure lasted for a few more years.
For the last couple years I've been reading it to see what's happening in spouse's Navy Reserve or to keep up with veteran's issues. However the freebie Military.com & MOAA e-mails more than make up for that. By the time I see the print of PROCEEDINGS I've already seen it several times on the Internet.
Now that spouse is retired she no longer [-]gives a damn[/-] cares about reading PROCEEDINGS either. We mostly look at the pretty pictures and skim the letters to see what senior officer is face-slapping other senior officers.
What's really starting to annoy me, though, is that USNI has sold me out. In the last two years I've started getting junk mail solicitations from every veteran's organization, military museum, and memorial on the face of the planet. They all have the same format (and old rank) of my USNI address label. After a half-dozen letters to USNI I'm ready to cancel my membership just so that they no longer sell my address. Heck, I'd tell them I was deceased if I thought it'd stop the junk mail faster.
How about you other veterans? Do you still read your service's professional magazine, or why would you bother? Have you been able to stop the junk mail or was canceling your membership the only thing that worked?
I've been reading the U.S. Naval Institute's PROCEEDINGS magazine since 1978 and I've had a $495 "life" membership since 1982. Considering everything that I've enjoyed from the magazine (and from USNI's book catalog) I feel I've received full value for my money.
But it got better. When I retired in 2002 I suddenly realized that I could just read the magazine for fun, not professional enhancement. I no longer had to [-]give a damn[/-] care so much about network-centric warfare or the CNO's top five or the future of battlespace dominance. That guilty pleasure lasted for a few more years.
For the last couple years I've been reading it to see what's happening in spouse's Navy Reserve or to keep up with veteran's issues. However the freebie Military.com & MOAA e-mails more than make up for that. By the time I see the print of PROCEEDINGS I've already seen it several times on the Internet.
Now that spouse is retired she no longer [-]gives a damn[/-] cares about reading PROCEEDINGS either. We mostly look at the pretty pictures and skim the letters to see what senior officer is face-slapping other senior officers.
What's really starting to annoy me, though, is that USNI has sold me out. In the last two years I've started getting junk mail solicitations from every veteran's organization, military museum, and memorial on the face of the planet. They all have the same format (and old rank) of my USNI address label. After a half-dozen letters to USNI I'm ready to cancel my membership just so that they no longer sell my address. Heck, I'd tell them I was deceased if I thought it'd stop the junk mail faster.
How about you other veterans? Do you still read your service's professional magazine, or why would you bother? Have you been able to stop the junk mail or was canceling your membership the only thing that worked?