I left twelve years ago after over 25 years. I'm glad I joined and I'm glad I left. I was proud of what I did in the Service, although I cannot pretend I liked everything that was happening in the 1990s. I had great time when I was in (most of the time), met many wonderful people some of whom have become lifelong friends and I went to many interesting places that I wouldn't have gone to if I hadn't joined. But, for a number of reasons (not least of which was a large wodge of redundancy money!) it was time to move on when I did.
Since then I have pursued a career in civil aviation and my family has, for the first time, been able to put down roots in a community; we have been in the same house for nearly twelve years.
Am I nostalgic? Of course! I had some epic times. Do I miss it? Definitely not - from what I see the proud Service that I left has been in terminal decline for some time. I do, though, hold in extremely high regard the guys and gals that are still in and constantly do more than we should reasonably expect of them with the shoddy, obsolete kit that they are given to operate.
The one thing I do miss is the banter. I just haven't been able to get civvies to buy into the 10-second response criterion!