Chester Arthur Reed PHOTO: The DenverChannel.com

The US Postal Service's oldest employee, Chester Arthur Reed, 95, has turned off the power on his Toyota forklift and, unconvincingly, headed into retirement.

The 37-year-long post office tenure of the forklift operator and mail handler - and his age - generated major print and electronic news coverage about Reed and his place of employment, the postal processing and distribution centre in Redlands.

Reed completed his last shift there on 29 June and was honoured on 30 June with a retirement ceremony during which he displayed graciousness and his healthy sense of well being and discipline.

But his version of retirement might surprise any sedentary person.

Reed and his surviving son, Richard, 59, plan to leave on 30 July for a 10-day trip to Europe. Their city-a-day itinerary: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Moscow, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Glasgow and Dublin, Richard Reed tells Forkliftaction.com News. That trip will continue their tradition of visiting one continent per year and seeing all that is possible in a short time.

Reed was born in 1914 and raised in Ohio. He participated in the Golden Gloves amateur boxing program, managed a heating and air conditioning business in Houston, Texas, served from 1947-1972 in the US Air Force, reaching the rank of sergeant and joined the postal service in 197.

His hourly wage with the agency started at USD4 and maxed out years ago at USD25.

Co-workers and supervisors lavish praise on Reed's work ethic. He never reported an illness and accumulated sick leave of 3,856 hours, equaling about 1.9 years.

Reed told a reporter for National Public Radio that he eats an onion sandwich daily. "You take two slices of bread, you put a lot of mayonnaise on both slices of bread, cut a great big slice of onion and put it in between," he says. "It doesn't make a difference if it's a hot or sweet onion, but the vinegar in the mayonnaise will counteract the heat in the onion, and you won't have a hot onion. So you take a sandwich, and you eat it, and they're very healthful." He advises people to eat garlic but avoid salt and sugar.

Another target for the former forklift operator: a second parasailing experience in Rio de Janeiro.