CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia National Guard Brigadier General Mike Cadle turned 60 Saturday and retired Sunday after a 40-year career serving his nation and the Mountain State.

Cadle, who was honored at the Guard headquarters in Charleston Sunday afternoon, said his first job in the Guard was as a mail clerk.

“I never dreamed I’d be an officer and certainly never dreamed I’d get an opportunity to be a Brigadier General,” Cadle told MetroNews. “Once you find something good though you tend to stay with it. I think most people are like that.”

Cadle said once he got in the Guard the call was always strong to stay and do the best he could.

“So that’s what I did,” he said.

Cadle, a South Charleston High School graduate, was struggling with his parents to pay his tuition at Marshall in the early 1980s when a friend, who was in the Guard, sold him on signing up.

“He said, ‘Hey, this is a great deal. It will help you go to school. It will help with your family,’ so I joined at 20-years-old,” Cadle said.

The Guard paid for Cadle’s undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Cadle has held many positions in those 40 years. He said all were unique and he enjoyed them. Near the top of the list was when he was the Guard’s public affairs officer in the early 2000s.

“I got to help tell the Guard’s story and got to highlight the incredible accomplishments of our people,” he said.

Cadle escorted West Virginia reporters on several occasions to New Orleans in 2005 to show the work the WV Guard was doing in helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The West Virginia Guard was the last Guard to leave Louisiana other than the Louisiana Guard.

“That’s how much they cared about the mission,” Cadle said.

West Virginia reporters also traveled with Cadle to Afghanistan to see the work of the 130th Airlift Wing. Most recently Cadle has been working with nations in Africa to help build out their military.

As he hangs up his uniform, Cadle said he’ll be thinking about how fulfilling his time in the Guard has been.

“It’s all encompassing. You can do just about anything you want in the Guard and there’s a lot of benefit to that. I was fortunate to get in when I did and have the opportunities that I have,” Cadle said.

Cadle has been to approximately 30 countries and visited five of seven continents.

“I’ve seen the world and it helps to see the world,” he said. “It helps form your perspective on America’s role in the world and what we need to do and certainly what we can do better and certainly what we can learn from others and what we can teach others.”