(This article by Kathie Rowell originally appeared in the March 2025 issue of Military Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members. Learn more about the magazine here; learn more about joining MOAA here.)

 

Chester Feagin was a 112-pound 17-year-old when he dropped out of high school to enlist in the Navy, eager to do his part to defend his country during World War II. He was on USS Wrangell (AE-12) off the coast of Iwo Jima when the flag was raised on Mount Suribachi.

 

Now MOAA member Feagin, 99, still works, serving as a tax preparer to about 100 clients.

 

Retirement? What’s that?

 

Feagin is an example of how many former officers don’t truly retire but move seamlessly into paid civilian employment or volunteer work in causes close to their hearts. Veterans seem to be bucking the “unretirement” trend — where people try retirement for a time, then choose to return to the work force. Instead, they seek options to retiring and stay mission-focused.

 

Mitchell Fitzpatrick, a former Army sergeant and current VetBiz director of training and outreach in St. Louis, said officers find it hard to “go from 100 mph to zero.” They are often fighting boredom and looking for a sense of purpose.

 

Maj. Tim den Hoed, USAF (Ret), owns Major Talent, which helps veterans translate their military skills and experiences into civilian language and connects them with appropriate companies.

 

And while some of his clients are looking for employment for financial reasons, many are seeking purpose.

 

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“Officers are wired to help people,” he said. “We’re wired to keep the mission moving. We’re wired to always be a part of something bigger. And then as soon as we’re out, then our purpose for all the things that we were trying to do is not there anymore, so we have to find that purpose in something else.”

 

Many find it in volunteer work.

 

‘Never Stop Serving’

Col. Truman Parmele, USAFR (Ret), is good at retiring — he’s done it multiple times — but not great at living a life of leisure.

 

Combining time on active duty and in the reserves, Parmele served 30 years, then worked as a civilian for DoD. Next, he was a part-time consultant and business development manager for a software firm for a few years, before he and his wife bought a restaurant/music emporium they operated for eight years. He sold it in 2017 after his wife passed away.

 

Col. Truman Parmele, USAFR (Ret), holding a MOAA blanket, serves at an event for Native American veterans. (Photo courtesy of Truman Parmele)

 

A chance encounter with a MOAA member at a baseball game gave Parmele a new focus in 2018 as a MOAA leader. A former chapter first vice president, he’s currently serving as outreach director for MOAA’s Grand Strand (S.C.) Chapter.

 

It’s been a great fit. “I’ve always had a thing for giving back, and if you look at MOAA’s motto, it says, ‘never stop serving.’ I liked it.”

 

Among his involvement has been organizing “stand downs,” events that provide supplies and services to veterans in need. When COVID-19 hit, he helped transition the events from a single central location to multiple drive-through, low-income remote locations where participants popped their trunks to receive backpacks of supplies. He and other chapter members connect those in need with appropriate services. An education, training, and employment program equips veterans to find jobs.

 

Although he’s slowed down due to health issues, he remains involved.

 

“I’m just basically now doing administrative stuff for outreach,” the 80-year-old said. “I don’t do the heavy lifting anymore for stand downs. All I do is sit there and show people how to collect the records, register the people. It’s interesting, and I’m still trying to stay where I can be active. I can’t sit still more than a couple of days.”

 

‘I Like to Keep Busy’

Former Army Capt. Linda Sharp Caldwell, 80, grew up in a military family and served three years through the former Army Student Nurse Program, including a 13-month deployment to Vietnam and a stint at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

 

“My dad was a career Air Force officer, and so I was used to moving around a lot,” she said. “I guess by the time I’d been out of college for three years and working in the Army, I finally decided I wanted to be a civilian for a change. I wanted to just go where I want to go and whatever, but many times, I’ve regretted that decision. I wish I had stayed.”

 

Former Army Capt. Linda Sharp Caldwell served as a nurse in Vietnam, left. Her effort to honor veterans led to hundreds of banners being raised in two towns. (Photos courtesy of Linda Sharp Caldwell) 

 

In a way, she’s returned. After a 47-year career that encompassed nursing and working in the pharmaceutical industry and for a medical education company, she’s spending her retirement years working in the veteran community. She and her husband, former Air Force Capt. Brent Caldwell, another Vietnam veteran, have served in a variety of leadership positions in their local MOAA chapter, and she is the current president of the South Carolina Council of Chapters.

 

Through MOAA, she’s a part of conducting service academy interviews for her legislators, hosting a Junior ROTC banquet, providing Christmas gifts for veteran college students, and doing presentations at chapter meetings across the state.

 

As treasurer of her county veterans council, she spearheaded a project to recognize veterans in the community through the Hometown Heroes Banner Program. Now there are more than 300 banners in two towns.

 

[RELATED: Find Your Nearby MOAA Chapter | Join a Virtual Chapter]

 

She’s also a frequent speaker at clubs and civic organizations.

 

An experience related to her service in Vietnam is a frequently requested topic. In 1990, Caldwell saw a preview for an episode of TV’s Unsolved Mysteries featuring a former soldier’s quest to find and thank the nurse he credited with giving him the will to live after he lost his leg at the hip — and almost his life — in Vietnam.

 

“It was me that they were looking for,” said Caldwell, whose emotional reunion with her former patient was added to the program.

 

Interest escalated in her story in 2024 with the publication of The Women, by author Kristin Hannah, a New York Times fiction No. 1 bestseller that tells
the story of a young Army nurse who serves during the Vietnam war.

 

Caldwell thinks her continued dedication to service is rooted in the nursing culture.

 

“I like to keep busy. I have a lot of energy and I just enjoy it. I have my downtime. I like to read mystery novels, and sometimes do cross-stitch projects and what have you, but my real passion is just to keep busy.”

 

A Different Call

Col. John Good, USAF (Ret), had a 26-year career in the Air Force — which included flying F-4s and F-117s, commanding a fighter squadron, and serving twice at the Pentagon — and a civilian career as executive director of safety for the Air Force Global Strike Command. He then felt it was time to answer a different call.

 

He and his wife Marcia, a former Air Force intelligence officer, moved to Hawaii to minister to servicemembers through Cadence International, formerly known as the Overseas Christian Servicemen’s Center, an evangelical mission agency dedicated to reaching the military communities of the U.S. and of the world.

 

Col. John Good, USAF (Ret), (center back row) poses with guests at a Home Port Hospitality House for dinner and Bible study. (Photo courtesy of John Good)

 

The couple sold their home on family land, gave up about 60% of their possessions, and raised money from supporters to help fund the ministry.

 

“It was just one challenge after another, and I just said to God, ‘OK, if you really want us to go, you’re going to have to work this out, because I had no power and no ability to work it.’ And he did,” said Good, 65.

 

Since July 2022, the Goods have operated a hospitality ministry focused on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, inviting servicemembers to their home for hot meals, Bible study, prayer, and fellowship. Some guests even use the Goods’ laundry room to wash their clothes. Good has also led Bible studies at Pearl Harbor Memorial Chapel.

 

The focus is on developing relationships and serving needs.

 

“These people get to know us and then get to trust us, and then they have personal needs, and they ask us, ‘Hey, can you help me with this? Can you spend time with me on this? Can you answer questions for me?’”

 

He feels he and his wife are uniquely qualified for these roles.

 

“It’s a great fit for us, especially considering all the experience we have, both on the uniform-wearing side and the civilian side of employment with the Air Force,” Good said. “Marcia was seven-and-a half years active duty as an intelligence officer and then 20 years as an Air Force wife, so she knows all the ins and outs of both sides of that experience and how to work things with finance and personnel and getting people passes on the base — she knows all that kind of stuff. It continues to prove itself to us that it’s just a real good fit for us in terms of our background.”

 

The Goods expect to continue this ministry “until God doesn’t let us do it anymore, either mentally or physically, or God moves us.”

 

He believes officers have a hard time truly retiring because most are Type A personalities. “We’re just driven. We’re very goal oriented, so just putting things down is just not part of the way we’re wired.”

 

‘I’ll Always Be a Soldier’

Col. Robin Ritchie, USA (Ret), had a 27-year career, with two Vietnam War tours early in his service when he was an advisor to the South Vietnamese army and commanded the last U.S. infantry company on the demilitarized zone, and ending in the Army Reserve where he trained Guard units for Desert Storm deployment.

 

Although he retired from the military more than 30 years ago, he’s never stopped serving.

 

Col. Robin Ritchie, USA (Ret), presents a 2024 MOAA grant to the executive director of The Warriors Refuge. (Photo courtesy of Robin Ritchie)

 

“I’ve always, for one reason or another, probably my own selfish reasons, stayed connected with the military community, and probably a lot of that is being a Vietnam-era veteran,” he said. “I am acquainted in one form or another with 48 names on that Vietnam Memorial wall, 11 of them my classmates. As I get older, I wonder why am I not on that wall. As I wound down the rest of stuff, I started increasingly getting involved with the veterans community.”

 

Ritchie, president of MOAA’s Houston Area Chapter, began volunteering during his civilian career as a health care recruiting and staffing officer. He started with Habitat for Humanity and then got involved with Impact A Hero, a Houston-based nonprofit that offers leadership and personal development opportunities to veterans, active servicemembers and their families. He recently joined the board of The Warriors Refuge, which provides transitional housing to homeless veterans.

 

Since retiring from his second career about two years ago, he’s had more time to devote to causes — about 20 hours a week.

 

Stepping back and taking it easy isn’t for him, the 81-year-old said.

 

“To basically paraphrase former [Army] Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, I was a soldier, and I’ll always be a soldier. So that’s the long and the short of it.”

 

‘I Love to Work’

Feagin’s military career wasn’t over when he returned home after World War II. Still in the Reserve during the Korean War, he decided to transfer to the Air Force. Turned down for an officer commission, he was able to transfer to the Army and attend Officer Candidate School. He was a first lieutenant in the National Guard when he left the military for good with about eight years of total service.

 

His long productive civilian life included obtaining his high school diploma and taking night school bookkeeping and accounting courses. He spent years working on the railroad and as a sales rep before opening his own accounting business about 50 years ago.

 

Now, he just works during tax season, visiting his clients’ homes to do their preparation.

 

Former 1st Lt. Chester Feagin, ARNG, (center) served during World War II and the Korean War and stays active with work and volunteering. (Photo courtesy of Fran Barber)

 

“I love to work. I love doing taxes,” he said. “My whole objective is to see that you pay the least amount of taxes and get the most back legally. If you can’t document it, don’t bring it to me because I won’t do the return.”

 

Feagin is also active in volunteer work, having served as treasurer of his local MOAA chapter. He’s a 44-year Kiwanis Club member, where he enjoys trying to instill civic pride in students, and is active at his church.

 

He would like to continue his active lifestyle, but health issues are developing, and he had to stop driving recently.

 

“I’m having a lot of trouble with my legs,” he said. “They did a procedure, and if it works out, I’ll probably work three or four more years.”

 

Feagin is the first to say he’s a had full, rewarding life. But he’s most proud of his “69-year, two-month, and 27-day” marriage to his wife, Donnie, to whom he proposed on their first date.

 

She passed away nine years ago.

 

“If every man loved their wife like I loved mine, the divorce lawyers would be out of business,” he said. “I never quit loving her, and she is always with me. Now I keep going until I get to be with her again.”

 

Kathie Rowell is a writer based in Louisiana.