This 5500 word feature in The National Interest started as a Facebook conversation with Milt Bearden, with whom I coauthored this. Milt, a CIA legend, won his war in Afghanistan. Mine seems to be limping to a sputtering end. Anyway, we have a long history of building partner forces and then kind of leaving them with little thought about what fruit that will bear. We need to. If we are to be a moral example for the world, how we treat others within it matters.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/america’s-foreign-legions-how-we-treat-our-proxies-defines-us-179277?fbclid=IwAR1ew5sQNACC_ZrikDd4LQE3hG0KehNuqiSTu1VH5YRKVUkDZj2ke5wx81M&page=0%2C3

I am a member of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, America’s fastest growing, youngest conservation group of outdoors folks. You should join. This story, about a duck hunt in public water, is really about being reborn as a later in life hunter after being away from it for decades. I have my friend Chris and his dog, Duk to thank.

You can download the file and read the story. I promise not to steal your identity and buy stuff at Best Buy.

After hearing David Joy and Bob Plott on this podcast, I reached out to the host Dave LaMere to tell him how much I enjoyed it. He had read one of my G&G stories and invited me on. That has led to several other opportunities and several other friends being on his show. I greatly appreciate the conversations he brings forth and the kindness he shows. I look forward to actually getting in the woods with Dave.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wild-huntsman/id1485186534?i=1000493517622

I wrote this for SOFLETE.com because they have a strong following of young, male, military/first responder types who could hopefully learn from my foolishness. It got a pretty good response, with lots of laughs at my expense.

https://soflete.com/blogs/knowledge/the-dumbass-chronicles-lessons-learned-from-a-lifetime-of-idiocy

SOFlete podcasts are always fun, freeform, rambling affairs in which we go wherever the wave takes us. Herein we discuss the Civil War, submarines, social justice movements, the Confederate flag, cholera, and traumatic blast injuries. Enjoy!

https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1238939513#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F855068323

In the confluence of friendship, my buddy Jariko Denman was the military technical adviser for this movie, then my buddies at SOFLete let me review it. Vets helping vets.

https://soflete.com/blogs/knowledge/movie-review-the-outpost

This is likely the most deeply personal thing I’ve written. That’s saying a fair bit as I’ve written about war, failure, and loss amongst other things. I am really proud Garden and Gun saw fit to publish it. My Uncle Trip was special and when he disappeared, a lot of us went with him. Click on the link and see why.

I really like writing these “5 Books” articles for SOFlete. I get to be me, recommend books I like (and that may not be on people’s radar), and help people find stuff to read. Win-Win-Win.

https://soflete.com/blogs/knowledge/five-books-you-should-read-this-summer-corona-edition?fbclid=IwAR1YirX3dEi4HiTl4h-GDxbBWZh-zK7cbRcxce1EUB-EBA7ad9VnGUw4iXc

I wrote this in about 90 minutes. It was a topic I pondered for a few months. America under COVID 19 made it clearer to me. It struck nerve with some folks, mostly to positive response.

https://soflete.com/blogs/knowledge/in-defense-of-hypocrisy

I read a fascinating article by Rachel Lance in The Smithsonian Magazine that turned out to be an excerpt from her forthcoming book, “In the Waves”. I read it, I liked it, I reviewed it, Garden and Gun published it. Life is cool.

Read it at the link

https://gardenandgun.com/articles/what-really-happened-to-the-crew-of-the-h-l-hunley/