[April 27, 2023] In 2004, in late August and on a brutally scorching day, my Engineers stood smiling after completing another helicopter-landing pad on Victory Base, Baghdad, Iraq. We were eight months into our combat deployment, and we were experienced professionals, skilled, in high demand, and the very best at what we did. One of my NCOs suggested… Read More »
[April 25, 2023] Eighty years ago, one of the most daring missions of WW2 took place that would have far-reaching implications, even today. In April 1943, American P-38s carried out a near-suicidal mission to intercept and kill Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, mastermind of the Pearl Harbor raid. This was Operation Vengeance. The story of how the U.S. military… Read More »
[April 24, 2023] The privilege to serve in the military is an opportunity to work with America’s best citizens. They come from all walks of society, backgrounds, education levels, and subcultures, a very diverse mix of upbringing, intellectual capability, and maturity. I saw that Soldiers who grew up without fathers stood out from rest and that this phenomenon… Read More »
[April 22, 2023] To say that, as a kid, I was afraid of snakes is an understatement. Growing up in a rural area in Northeast Louisiana often put me in contact with them. This article is about growing up with snakes and how my friends and our fathers were part of the story that helped us be better… Read More »
[April 21, 2023] Last year, Matt Walsh released a brilliant documentary titled What is a Woman? Just this past October, I wrote about it here. You might think that after all this time, someone might be capable of answering this simple question. I know my seven-year-old granddaughter can answer it. The United States Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona,… Read More »
[April 19, 2023] That day, the senior NCO on duty gave me a simple choice. I was transitioning out of the U.S. Army as an enlisted man, and it was August, a very hot and sweltering day. I could see Soldiers outside mowing the grass on the grassy parade field next to the building where I sat. I… Read More »
[April 18, 2023] Mostly through opportunities, the U.S. Army taught me about listening closely to what my Soldiers had to say. And, fair enough, that is important advice. But one thing they did not teach is the point I will make today. When you listen to someone, do not assume you know what they are talking about. Ask… Read More »
[April 17, 2023] The importance of eating meals together with others is often overlooked or taken for granted. I wrote a couple of times about this and focused my attention on the pragmatism of what I gained from these meals. In one recent article, I wrote of the reasons to eat your meal with others, but there is… Read More »
[April 16, 2023] One essential behavior about people that we really don’t understand and should understand is that we are inherently unappreciative. Fyodor Dostoevsky insightfully wrote that if you set up a utopia so that all people had to do was eat cake and busy themselves with the continuation of the species (Russian humor), after a short bit… Read More »
[April 15, 2023] Over the past few weeks, as I lay in the hospital bed after major surgery, I thought of the lessons we fail to tell good men. Those lessons I will write about can make good men even better. Better than they ever could think they could be, these lessons deserve to be laid out and… Read More »