Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
The ideas presented by the founders - debated, argued, and finally articulated in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 - were not just meant for the people of that century. They were meant for all who would come after them. They stand as an idea, not as something that has been enshrined into existence. The …
Continue reading "An Ongoing American Revolution"
Water rushes and curves around the rock where I happen to be sitting. Bits of fluff from the tree on the other side of the stream lightly ride the swell of air over the water. A butterfly lands, hesitantly, on my knee. All noise aside from that of the water fades into obscurity. This moment, …
Continue reading "Finding Peace for the Army Mind"
I've put this off for a while now. It's as if putting it into words means that it's all real. Which I guess it is. On April 12 - Easter Sunday - my father died. Even now, a month on, that sentence makes little sense to me. Trying to write a remembrance for your father's …
Continue reading "Beans under a Carolina-Blue Sky: Remembering my Father"
I have been struggling with the concept of pain and grief of late, with my father's death in the midst of a global pandemic as a backdrop. It was a beautiful morning the day after he died, and that seemed somehow confusing to me - just as the spectacular blue skies on September 11, 2001 …
Continue reading "Incongruous"
My father passed on Easter Sunday. While I've found some solace through writing, there's just that feeling of wondering why the world goes on when yours has stopped. I wrote this poem to try to express how I feel. Hopefully it will help those also grieving in this time of pandemic. Why doesn't the whole …
Continue reading "Why doesn’t it"
There’s an interchange on I-185, right outside of Fort Benning. It’s a big, glorious waste of taxpayer money, featuring statues of eagles and Old Bill and Iron Mike, embodiments of Armor/Cavalry and the Infantry, respectively. Big fountains that must be hell to maintain in the soul-sucking Georgia summers. And twenty American flags; ten on each …
Continue reading "Guest Post: Hashtags are not Enough"
Why do we write? That’s a thorny question for many authors. We’d rather give a terse reply and chug some bourbon rather than give an honest answer. Because posing that query forces us to look inward and ask the hard questions. And we’d rather ask those questions about other people than ourselves, for fear of …
Continue reading "Why Do We Write?"
So 2017 is over, and what a year it has been. We’ve had drama, scandal, disasters, wars, outbreaks, and diseases, and I think that was just in August alone. I recall after 2016 we all said, "Well, we sure aren’t gonna do THAT again” and apparently we didn’t mean it. Still, with all the latent …
Continue reading "Predictions for 2018"
So it's Monday afternoon, and I've set some time aside to write. And as is usual when I do this, the words have decided to hide themselves beneath my keys and they refuse to come out. Classic case of writer's block. So this is my attempt to coax the words out, to try to charm …
Continue reading "Defeating Writer’s Block"
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine! America: a Poem for July 4th (1911) A few years ago, I traveled back to my Ohio hometown for …
Continue reading "How I Lost at Patriotism – And How We All Lose"
The Angry Staff Officer 
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