A rainy day in San Francisco set Bennet Sacolick on course to become an Army general, one of the nation’s top special operators and a driving force in the nation’s counter-terrorism policy.

But after 35 years in uniform, including time in command of Delta Force and the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, Sacolick only recently took time to reflect on that career.

Lt. Gen. Sacolick, most recently the director for strategic operational planning at the National Counterterrorism Center, retired July 1.

His last act in uniform was speaking to a Special Forces graduation in Fayetteville late last month.

Now he and his wife, Joyce, have moved back to Fayetteville for a new chapter in their marriage.

Sacolick plans to make up for more than two decades of constant deployments by staying in one place and working on the couple’s dream home.

It’s a marked change of pace for a man who, for the latter half of his career, has been focused on fighting terrorism across the globe.

“I started as a private. I’m a three-star general. I did something right. But I was a bad husband,” Sacolick said.