Category: Veterans & Life After Service
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From Duty to Dad: Navigating Fatherhood After War
I never really knew my dad. If you added up all the time I spent with him, it wouldn’t make six months. The first time I saw him, I was around eight, and I don’t remember doing much with him. The next time was as a preteen, and that round didn’t do me any favors…
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It wasn’t bad enough so I let it get so much worse
This is the post I didn’t want to write.What makes it worse is that none of this is new to me.I wrote about this years ago. It was actually the first thing I ever wrote, even if it wasn’t the first thing I posted. I talked about the panic attacks, the hyper vigilance, the feeling…
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Two Wars, One Generation: Why Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Deserve Proper Recognition
For more than twenty years, American service members fought across two completely different battlefields: Afghanistan and Iraq. A lot of us — myself included — served in both. But the way our awards are structured, you’d think those deployments were all part of one single conflict. Anyone who actually fought in them knows that’s not…
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From Duty to Dad: Navigating Fatherhood After War
I never really knew my dad.If you added up all the time I spent with him, it wouldn’t make six months. The first time I saw him, I was around eight, and I don’t remember doing much with him. The next time was as a preteen, and that round didn’t do me any favors —…
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A Different Assignment – A Different Fate
Today marks a day I can never forget. Twenty three years ago, the squad I was in before we deployed, hit an AT mine. I was moved to weapons squad as soon as I got in country. I’ve carried the weight of that randomness, the loss of my team, and the disillusionment that followed. I…
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Forgotten Veterans: America’s Overlooked Wars
Not every war makes it into the schoolbooks. America’s most celebrated veterans come from the major wars—World War II, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. But thousands of Americans fought, bled, and died in lesser-known conflicts that helped shape U.S. policy and identity. Here’s a chronological look at some of America’s forgotten wars—what sparked them, how they ended,…
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Not All Who Served Are Gone—
Understanding the Difference Between Veterans Day and Memorial Day Every year, Americans post flags and “thank you for your service” memes twice: once in May, once in November. Most mean well—but a lot of people still mix up Veterans Day and Memorial Day like they’re interchangeable. They’re not. And if you’re going to wave the…
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Violence Is Violence—No Matter the Idea
I’ve seen what real violence looks like. I’ve walked through the streets of Baghdad after Saddam fell, where hatred exploded around every corner. Bodies in alleys. Trunks filled with the dead. Streets littered with people murdered for nothing more than who they were, what they believed, what sect they were born into. Sunni. Shia. Kurd.…
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The Soviets showed us what not to do. We did it bigger.
What We Left Behind We recently pulled out of the country, and after all that time, it feels like we left things not much different from when I was there over 20 years ago. One of my biggest fears won’t come true now, at least — my son won’t fight the same war I fought.…
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