Tactical Regret by Nick Perna “A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once”. William Shakespeare I’ve had a lot of interesting jobs in the tactical world. The common denominators for these gigs were the fact that they were hard, dangerous and the pay sucked. So, when a guy offered me $30 an hour to babysit some … [Read more...]
The End of the Conversation: What Soldiers Talk About
The End of the Conversation: What Soldiers Talk About by Nick Perna It's been said about combat that it consists mainly of boredom occasionally punctuated by moments of terror. But, mostly, there's lots of boredom. LOTS of it… Soldiers do whatever they can to pass the time: eat, sleep, workout, read, watch movies, play video games and so on. Probably the biggest … [Read more...]
The Most Important Lesson I Learned from My First Sergeant
The Most Important Lesson I Learned from My First Sergeant by Nick Perna First Sergeants are the linchpin of the military community. They maintain tradition and continuity in a world where platoon leaders, company commanders, battalion commanders and others are constantly coming and going. They are experts in their field. An Infantry First Sergeant for example, has served … [Read more...]
“We the People of the United States…”
“We the People of the United States…” by Nick Perna Way back in the 1970s when I was a kid a record came out entitled, “Free To Be, You and Me”. It had such hit songs as, “It's All Right to Cry” and other snowflake soliloquies. It was revolutionary in the fact that it explored gender equality issues and other sensitive topics for the first time. One of the main themes … [Read more...]
Why Special Operations Leaders are Bad Role Models
Why Special Operations Leaders are Bad Role Models by Nick Perna If you go to Amazon (or any book store) you’ll find no shortage of books written by former special operations supervisors on the topic of leadership. Former members of Seal Team 6, Delta Force and others discuss their experiences while leading these units. These are seen as shining examples of superior … [Read more...]
COVID-19: My Chemical Romance
COVID-19: My Chemical Romance by Nick Perna Perspective, it's how we look at something now can be light years away from how it appeared at the time. A long time ago (17 years ago, to be exact) a bunch of troops prepared to go to war, in Iraq. Range training, individual and team movement and physical conditioning. We trained for all of the usual stuff, with one added … [Read more...]
“Not Quite One Weekend a Month”: Disaster Relief with the National Guard
"Not Quite One Weekend a Month": Disaster Relief with the National Guard by Nick Perna In the summer of 1992 I was a college student on the “four and a half year” plan at a college in North Florida. I was in Army ROTC, waiting to get commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. At the time, ROTC cadets could serve part time in National Guard units as part of the Simultaneous … [Read more...]
Manning: You’re doing it wrong
I’m old. I don’t go to Denny’s at 5 PM for the early bird special, wear pants with elastic waistbands or watch “Matlock” and ” Murder She Wrote” reruns. However, being forty-nine, I don’t consider myself, “middle-aged”, more like, “closer to death than birth”. Times change. What defines a man today is obviously different than when I was younger. That being said, some … [Read more...]
A Cop’s Perspective: Classifying Veterans as Psychopaths (Guilt by Association)
A Cop's Perspective: Classifying Veterans as Psychopaths (Guilt by Association) by Nick Perna In 2006 I was attending a Field Training Officer Class. Field Training Officers, or FTOs, train new police officers after they leave the academy on how to do field police work. As I perused the class syllabus I saw a topic which surprised me. A one hour block on dealing with … [Read more...]
Search Warrants: The Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Search Warrants: The Fruit of The Poisonous Tree by Nick Perna There has been much said, written and posted recently about the Nunes letter that made allegations regarding the veracity and integrity of the FISA warrants that launched the Russian Collusion investigation. What’s come into question is the credibility of the Fusion GPS report that provided at least some of the … [Read more...]
