Imagine the following scenario.  A young man or woman turns 16 and decides it is time to get their driver’s license.  They have never driven a car.  Their neighbor owns a manual transmission vehicle, and they convince that neighbor to take them to the local DMV to take the driving test, in that car.  The … Continue reading Lead with your Actions, not your Mouth

My great uncle is dying, a man that I have memories of as far back as I have memories.  He likely has a few days to live.  He is, and will always be in my mind, an amazing man.  He has been present for monumental events in my life, from graduating BUD/s, to celebrating my … Continue reading The Things I Wish I had Said 

As I was lying in bed last night trying to sleep, my mind kept drifting back to the events in London.  Every time something like this happens it eats at me.  From an outside perspective, it can seem like a “small” event.  The loss of life, and the number of injured is not “large” in … Continue reading A Lesson From London

The picture attached to this post is the best excuse I have.  It is an X-ray from the last medical checkup on my hip.  The metal will be with me for the rest of my life, and there is not a day that goes by that it does not impact my life.  I can’t feel … Continue reading What is Your Excuse?

When I was young our house had a basement, and my bedroom was in that basement.  Every day I had to go up and down a set of stairs.  Adjacent to the stairs was a storage room, which I thought of as the seventh layer of hell.  I was convinced that some combination of the … Continue reading Things That Go Bump in The Night

If you had asked me fifteen years ago what I thought the greatest threat to America was, I would have said terrorism.  If you asked me three years ago, I would have said cyber warfare.  If you were to ask me today, given all that is transpiring in the world, I would say that the … Continue reading The Road Ahead

In a country that most would struggle to find on a map, in a compound that few possess the courage to enter, men from my previous life took the fight to our enemy. In that compound, they found men that pray five times a day for your destruction.  Those men don’t know me, they don’t … Continue reading A Debt That Cannot Be Repaid

We need to do everything we can to ensure the safety of our country.  Torture may not be the perfect answer, but it has worked in the past, and you cannot discount the results.  Our safety and security are all that matters.  The end justifies the means, right? Wrong. SERE stands for Survival Escape Resistance … Continue reading The End Justifies the Means…

I have no idea how many people read what I write. I write for me, and in the hopes it provides a perspective not common for most. I hope it challenges what you believe, and in turn, I hope you challenge what I believe. I posted on Facebook a few days ago, and the response … Continue reading Why you should not listen to anything I say…..

This post comes straight from a conversation I recently had with Tony Blauer.  If you don’t know who Tony is, he is worth looking up, following, and learning from.  What I love about Tony, and his system, is that it is built off of simplicity (my words not his).  It builds on what already exists … Continue reading Weathering the Storm