Leaving the Military

It took me twenty years, but I have finally retired from my career in the U.S. Air Force. To think that I
joined the military right away when I was just 18. I remember seeing snow and mountains for the first
time at the Eielson Air Force Base like it was yesterday. All that work got me to the rank of Master
Sergeant. I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the
guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I
was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way
anymore. But, Alaska was so beautiful that I just couldn’t stop painting. I even developed my wet-on-wet
painting technique so I could paint even faster. Gosh, I would even make a couple of paintings on my
lunch breaks. Once I started selling them I realized I was making a heck of a lot more money selling
paintings than I did working for the military. So I finally decided to leave the military to paint full time.
I saw a television series called The Magic of Oil Painting. It stars a fella named Bill Alexander and he
was also painting with the wet-on-wet technique. In fact, he appointed me as his successor when he was
preparing to retire. I told my lovely wife Jane that I would give it a shot for a year, and if that didn't
work out I'd head on back to Alaska. Luckily for me, everything turned out alright.

Military.com. “Famous Veteran: Bob Ross.” Military.com,
www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-bob-ross.html.

Ward, Alvin. “35 Happy Little Facts About Bob Ross.” Mental Floss, 29 Oct. 2018,
www.mentalfloss.com/article/510332/35-happy-little-facts-about-bob-ross.