171 days of 8hr patrol and 4 hours in TOC every day....we finally got some leave time.....good thing to.....we were about ready to start shooting eachother just to get some down time in medical

Probably 2000 for me, though it might go back to '95.

Today was a vacation day. I was dealing with email starting at 8:30am and set up a couple of pitch sessions this afternoon. Finding money has no down time. I'm forcing myself to take two vacation days a month as I'm maxed out on accrual and am losing days (that is our only "severance" though). If I can get a few more contracts in the door the goal is to try and really take 3 weeks off at xmas. Or I'll be unemployed which could force the issue. As it stands I'm likely letting go of 5 members of my team come end of Oct. The govt is really screwy right now... SmileWavy

Remembered being at Guam AFB (Andersen) in late '65 during the first months of Rolling Thunder (B-52s) and working 18 hrs. on and 6 hrs. off for 4 months straight...then getting 2 full days off. Everyone was constantly pissed off. :mad:
We had a squadron patch that said, "Guam Is Good - by order of the Base Commander"
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Andersen AFB w/152 B-52s:
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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1377903796.jpg

A half day to a 1st and 2nd generation Greek is 12 hours. Five years ago, I was on a corporate project where we were working 7 days a week for 2 months. We had food catered working till 9pm. On Sundays we started a 5am so we finished at 12pm so the group could go home and watch football.

We finished the project right before Christmas and I came down with a bad case of vertigo. I went to my ENT and helped me get thru it. I asked him if this could be brought on by stress and he said yes. He asked me what I was doing and after hearing my story he asked, "and when are you going to stop?" I don't do that any more. I put my health first. I still work on projects with very tight deadlines but I won't do what I did five years ago.

Shaun - long hours does catch up with you. Be careful.

I had a seven week stretch last year where I billed over 100 hours each week. +1 on it catching up to you, there is a difference between simply not taking days off and working yourself to exhaustion.

I did 6 weeks of 24 hour shifts, day on, day off. At the hospital every #^*%~ day for 6 weeks.....Ah, those were the days!

I had a few runs of 21 days x 10/12 hrs but I nipped it in the bud quickly. I own my own business and these periods made me realize that it was not what I want. I believe in work hard, play hard, and rest easy. My job is pretty cool but it ain't that cool that I am willing to sacrifice everything else for it. The world is simply too grand a place to miss out on. I went on a mission to charge more $$, delegate more, and grind my suppliers more to find a balance between work/play/rest I can live with. So far so good.

I have several friends that work all the time and are very successful but never take time to spend their hard earned cash. That is simply not the life I choose to live. YMMV

83 days straight at sea before hitting port during a 7 1/2 month deployment. However, I was 20 and we went to Australia where the women kept calling me Randy. I never corrected them as apparently Randy gets a lot of sex.

Prolly 5 minutes

7+ months (Desert Shield/Storm) with the USMC...

Iraq deployment. All you had to do was work.

As soon as I saw the words "Do deployments count?" I felt like a heel for complaining about my working hours.

And my time in the service was no comparison to the guys in the sandbox & other places over there right now.

I was in during peacetime, and I either had pretty good (but boring) shore duty or was shipboard with division officers & CPO's who didn't have their heads up their asses - they recognized that extreme fatigue makes for mistakes.

And, of course, I was young, stupid, and invincible.

I was self employed in an industry that closed only on Christmas day for 10 years, 14 hour days 5 days per week, 8 hour days Saturday Sunday........I feel your pain.... and...I love working for someone else now.....do you know they PAY YOU to take THREE WEEKS holidays.....EVERY YEAR!!!!!!!!:D
(the worst, is thinking about all the things and opportunities/vacations my daughter missed out on during that period.....I don't recommend it to anybody)

Yup,I'm like you guys. I have no idea what a vacation is anymore. I don't even take holidays like thanksgiving or Christmas off anymore.

93 hrs since last Sunday, and I barely made it through today with my sanity. looking forward to a day off

It does catch up with you, you change a little, become one-dimensional, and ornery. I was smart enough this August show to stop 3 times for naps while driving to NY, so I learned something.:D Worked all weekend, this is my last week of non-stop work. I can't wait.

Great stories here. Love the picture Don!