Getting fired can be a very good thing. I know this from personal experience. It happened to me three times during my working life, and all three resulted in very positive outcomes. The first time I was a 19yo caught stealing beer from the Pittsburgh Airport where I worked as a night janitor for the food service company. It had been going on for months. Hosting free-beer parties every weekend wasn’t doing anybody any good, and I was going nowhere academically or in the job market. That first one was unintentional.
The second time came many years later in 2002, as the unintended consequence of my own intentions. OSI informed the CSS Commander at Peterson AFB of some so-called “network hacking” activity attributed to me. The funny part about that was, I reported it myself after discovering system vulnerabilities in the course of my assigned tasks and duties! It turned into a time-wasting, embarrassing conundrum for a Commander unwilling to admit his mistake before the erroneous Article-15 action was refuted. Then I got a new, better job: A trip to Bosnia. That was punishment for beating the Article 15. You should have seen the look on his face when we went in to sign the paperwork. He was steamed. Then I went off and did some really cool stuff at Butmir. Within a week of my arrival it was apparent nobody with a clue had been around for quite awhile. It wasn’t very difficult making a lasting, positive impact on MIB secure comms. Lotsa people thank you for that, Col Wright!
My 3rd time around the firing ring, 2nd on the insubordination track, was a few years later working as a Lockheed contractor at Schriever AFB. That was fully intentional by me, all the way through. Sometimes you just gotta stop tolerating the bullshyt. I got a 2-month paid vacation and fully-funded retirement out of that one. Good luck LtCol Vindman – but I don’t think you’ll need it.