I was in that middle ground between frustration, fatigue, and anger… again. What’s worse is I couldn’t remember why I was there or how to fix Continue Reading
As We Go… This We Know
2016 02 03 Wednesday It is just cold enough to be uncomfortable. Those crew members not on watch are assembled at parade rest on the flight deck. Continue Reading
I’ll Take My Armor Off Someday–But Not Today
2016 04 29 Friday It was day three of the Pacific Area Deck Landing Qualification roundup, PACAREA DLQs for short. We had less polite euphemisms to Continue Reading
You Can Scream Underwater
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