Welcome from Potosi, MO. Getting to retire or having to retire, I found are two different things. I worked for the state of Colorado until I rolled a snowplow during a severe ice storm out on the Eastern plains in 2000. I ended up having a stroke during brain surgery from the accident. Colorado's Worker Comp. Division sent me a nice letter informing me that a person had to have 20 years to retire and I only had 19.24 years!