I cut steel in a factory, worked out, ran, dated women, ran some more, dated more, kick-boxed and ran even more. Trained with the city SWAT team for fun and taught them advanced rifle marksmanship. (I was already a SF trained sniper.) Used to go on ride-alongs’ all the time with the SWAT SGT.
Pissed off the union where I worked by not joining and busting the union required work quota’s. If the union said you could only cut twenty-five pieces an hour, I’d cut forty-five pieces an hour. Did that every day. Had my work checked once a week by a union idiot to ensure I was not cutting corners or doing crappy work.
Seriously pissed them off to the point they threatened me, big mistake.
Was a very amusing time. Made great money but work sucked. Wanted to be back outside. Also missed the camaraderie of the infantry. The only “friends” I had working at the factory were the vets. They all said they wished they could do it again, go back into the military but all had families to support and made great money doing factory work.
I then met a former Special Forces soldier and had a long chat with him. Made up my mind right there I was going back in…… actually had to cross state lines to find a recruiter that had not filled his quota for prior service recruits…… signed up and the rest was history.