Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
With all due apologies to Charles Dickens. Marley was dead: to begin with. There was no doubt ever about that. Marley and Scrooge had been buddies ever since basic training. They’d shared a bunk together. But now, Marley was dead. As dead as a door-nail. Okay, not actually dead-dead, just dead on social media, where …
Continue reading "A Veterans Day Carol: Being a Ghost Story of Veterans Day"
On Veterans Day, at my son’s request, I sat in a crowded elementary assembly as part of a Veterans Day ceremony. I listened uncomfortably to fifth and sixth graders repeat what they had been taught in their classrooms about veterans and about military service: that veterans represent the best our country has to offer, that …
Continue reading "Fixing Veterans Day"
Veterans' Day. I am one of hundreds of thousands of service members. You are one of millions of people. You see me, and thank me for my service. I thank you for your support, and we go on our ways. It's a tried and true formula; I am thanked, and therefore gratified for public support, …
Continue reading "What is Our Service?"
As often happens around this time of year, I was asked to give a talk on Veterans Day to a local high school assembly. But while usually the words come more easily, this year I was sort of at a loss as I thought about what to say. How do I convey my complex and …
Continue reading "On Service: A Veterans Day Introspective"
"This is the great reward of service, to live, far out and on, in the life of others." - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain I came upon this quote about four years ago - near the 100th anniversary of Chamberlain's death - and right around the time that France, Germany, the UK (and the Commonwealth Countries) were …
Continue reading "Armistice and After: The Legacy of the WWI Generation in the U.S."
Scene: a bar on the back-end of the galaxy. “Look, I've got some stuff to say. I was a proud servant of the Empire for a full 20 years. And I saw some serious shit. Hi, yes, my name is NL-689, but all my mates called me Null. Served all over the galaxy and it …
Continue reading "Stormtrooper Goes on Veterans Day Rant"
It’s Veterans Day. Which means a proliferation of “thank you for your service” posts across social media from civilians which will be matched by the “I’m so special that you can’t understand my service,” posts from some – not all – veterans. This is what experts would say is indicative of the civilian-military divide that has …
Continue reading "What can Fallout 4 Teach us About Veterans Day?"
Today is the 61st Veterans Day. It comes at a time when many see a military-civilian divide. It is a good time to look back and examine why we have a day set aside for veterans and how to bridge the gap. It might strike some as odd that although we have had veterans even …
Continue reading "This Veterans Day, Let’s be Americans"
November 11, 1918, dawned as any other day for the exhausted men of the U.S Army’s 26th Division, nicknamed the “Yankee Division” because it was a National Guard division from New England. The Yankees had been on the front since February, with only one brief rest for two weeks in August. They had taken so …
Continue reading "The Veteran Transformation of November 11, 1918"
The Angry Staff Officer 
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