2014 12 16 Tuesday Like most mornings aboard the CGC Active, I was sitting on the mess deck, hunched over my coffee, inhaling the vapors to drive Continue Reading
I Didn’t Feel Like a Veteran
It was Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. Standing on the fantail, I watched the patchy, silvered overcast roll down out of the snow-frosted mountains. Their Continue Reading
The Weight of the Example We Set
Lead by example.That phrase gets used a lot in the military and first responder communities. It’s often mistaken to mean leaders must have a high PT Continue Reading
Departing Awards: “We Don’t Do This Alone”
I’m the kind of guy that wins all his arguments three days later in the shower. When I haven’t had an argument in a while, I dig up the past and say Continue Reading
The Knife-Edge Between Caring and Caring Too Much
Editor’s note: This piece is drawn from the author’s Coast Guard correspondence. The dry dock that we endured in the last two months of 2015 was Continue Reading
Never Show Fear to a Competent E-5 with Time on Their Hands
I never really understood the term “Love Hate Relationship” until I had to stand watch. You hear the phrase standing, setting, or relieving the Continue Reading
Echoes in the Wind
My son is on spring break this week, and he’ll be three at the end of the month. I work an odd schedule that sometimes gives me Tuesday afternoons Continue Reading
Work Cattle for a Week, and You’ll Understand Why We Eat Them
2020 05 15 Friday, early afternoon Work cattle for a week, and you’ll understand why we eat them. I was breathing like bellows in a forge, Continue Reading
My Face Hurts… a LOT
The week had been ramping up to this. All the prior training, all the talk, the boasting, and the detailed descriptions from my shipmates ran in Continue Reading
Misfire Procedures
I was tired. It was mid-morning January 3rd and all I could think about was getting back to bed when the day was over. My fourth or fifth mug of Continue Reading
A Day in the Life of a Coast Guardsman
2014 09 12 Friday The event started late in the afternoon. We received a rather vague notification that a vessel of interest (VOI) may be heading Continue Reading
Standing Ready in a Quiet Kitchen
I recently rewatched the movie Fight Club, based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The book is a different animal, with a decidedly Continue Reading