Trippin’ Grunts

  Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are author’s alone and do not represent the opinions of the DOD or USAF.   Apparently, Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children have a new problem. Grunts tripping. Not on a...

Nonno’s Old Box of Memories

Secretly, gingerly, as if uncovering a secret stash of nudie magazines, I dug into the spare bedroom closet. I held my hands high as I stood on my tip-toes. Past the winter coats, past the once...

3495 Bailey

Every step, a set of ribbons stitched on a hat Reminds you of where they’ve been And where you’re at Wedged in a chair, relating to peeling linoleum Narcotics more present than the fiends holding t...

Leaning Into Force Design

In March of 2020, the United States Marine Corps officially announced its decision to divest the Corps’ armor assets.  An 80-year-old community, who had perfected their craft, set aside their pride...

To Hanoi with Poems

 It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon in Savannah. As I finished my breakfast, I exited the pub and downed my drink. Wanting to break up the monotony of my usual day, I decided to check out a book shop...

The Afghan Crisis: Helping Effectively

 I’m waiting on several contributions for a project of mine. Some of the friends I am waiting on are currently preoccupied with getting Americans and their friends out of harm's way in Afghanistan....

Written in Taliban

  The first time I saw you was in the Khyber Pass.  You came with your technology, elite fighters fueled by revenge, and the hubris to believe you could disprove history.   This was a war that ...

10pm on a Tuesday

My dog is telling me to go to bed but he has the same voice as my dead fiancé. It scares Me. I hear the echoes down the hall and stumble to the kitchen refusing to look into the bedroom again I see...

The Terrible Puzzle and The Terrible Prize

I’ve reached a point in my grief stage where I don’t have any more uncontrolled sobbing sessions. Not that I had many of them, anyway. When my brother died, I had seen it coming for ten years, the ...

What Are We Waiting For?

In the spring of 2011, I was a fire team leader in Sangin, Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. My platoon was spread out between two different outposts, and we only had one int...

Frontier Notes: The Mountains and My Azimuth

There’s a heartbeat out here. The organ is no different. The body it resides in is no different. But the ferocity she beats with here is tangible. It’s not shrouded by structures or tempered by pav...

Social Instability Among the Nacirema

Political anthropologists have been fascinated with various tribes and societies around the globe in recent decades.  The Middle East and Africa are home to civilizations ripe for study.  Insurgenc...

Writing with TBI

I speak much slower than I used to. In fact, I think much slower, too. Detached synapses are like abandoned off-ramps on the interstate of my thoughts. New roads have been built, and we all know ho...

Brave Men and Lost Boys

Peter Banning (played by Robin Williams): To die would be a great adventure!  Captain James Hook (played by Dustin Hoffman): Death is the only adventure you have left.  - Hook (1991)   So the story...

Frankie’s in Lacey

We sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads”  Because I killed it, drunk and buried in smoke A woman approached and told me we had to do “Rocky Mountain High” The woman took a drag and told me it would ma...