Since most of Battle Company, second platoon disbanded, weve moved on. Careers have been launched, schools attended and families started. Were not the kids that filled out Army uniforms so long ago. ...
Nearly half a decade ago in a stuffy barracks room corner, I created this blog for a very simple reason: to communicate to my family the curious aspects of Army life. Before I committed, I enjoyed wr...
As the steady flow of commuters emptied out of the subway, I stood to the side, watching down avenues of approach with my head on a swivel. Jesse’s assault pack dug into my shoulders, heavy not from ...
The amount of stuff a soldier brings home from war can be limitless. Books, bootleg DVDs, letters, pictures, memories, post traumatic stress, TBI - without fail, everyone comes home with more than wh...
“Hey man, just so you know, I’m going to set this thing off.”I don’t have a metal plate in my head or shrapnel in my legs, but I carry with me something that might as well be lodged deep under my ski...
Green Zone (2010):Shaky cam shakes manBourne is on the hunt for WMDWe too find nothing***(Previous haiku reviews: Redacted, Home of the Brave, Stop Loss and In The Valley of Elah)
The Hurt Locker was far from my favorite movie of 2009. Out of the ten nominees for Best Picture, I liked four films more than Kathryn Bigelow's entry. It wasn't even the best movie that dealt with t...
or: Hurt Locker updates will continue until Iraq movies improveWhile The Hurt Locker is still considered to be the heavy favorite to pick up a few Oscars this Sunday, the negative reviews are pouring...
If you're not a regular at the Holiday Inn or stopped reading so called news-papers, head on over to USA Today for a piece on veterans opining about The Hurt Locker (including Troy from Bouhammer and...
My ex girlfriend's best friend and former roommate had an odd, expensive and time consuming hobby. She would collect magazines, dozens of them, and clip out pictures she liked. I'm not sure what she ...
In my previous post, I outlined some basic principles needed to successfully navigate the murky waters of education under the GI Bill. The challenges in dealing with the VA for education benefits are...
For many student veterans across the country, the first semester under the Post 9/11 GI Bill is in the books. Some of the smarter folks opted to stay with the old Chapter 30 until the new bill, Chapt...
After a long hiatus I was set to post something today, but I caught wind of Blackfive leading a blackout of all milblog posting for today and in some cases, the rest of the week or more. The blackout...
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing Tim O'Brien speak at Texas State University about the art of writing. He read from a recent magazine article and entertained a few questions. During his ...
Today my literature class continues our unit discussion of poetry. The instructor asked us to bring in our favorite poems and read them aloud. I try to sequester the words 'vet,' 'Iraq,' and 'war' fr...
When I think of sublime director-actor couplings in cinema the past thirty years, only a few come to mind. Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, The Coen Brothers and John Goodman, Tommy Wiseau and himself...
Have you been stop-lossed? Like wads of cash? You can get $500 bucks for every month you were retained by the pleasure of the government. Grab your DD-214 and go here to start the registration proces...
The VA will be conducting a special telephone outreach this week to students enrolled in the Post 9/11 GI Bill. The staff will be ready to answer questions you may have, the most pressing likely bein...
If you've been following the news from Afghanistan, then you no doubt have heard about the Taliban assault on COP Keating that left eight soldiers dead and the outpost destroyed. What the media hasn'...
If you picked up your emergency VA check last week but your bank refuses to cash anything written hastily on the back of a cocktail napkin, the VA has a solution:VA is soliciting the support of local...
The Army is scrapping two heavy brigades for Stryker units:The move to convert two heavy brigades to Stryker units signals the Army's shift toward a lighter, more quickly deployable formation that is...
Those students who were about to drive 400 miles to their VA regional office, heed this press release:Last week Shinseki announced that on Friday, Oct. 2, VA’s 57 regional benefits offices will begin...
Not everyone has been impressed with the VA's too little, too late response to the newest GI Bill misadventure. Jonn from This Ain't Hell brings up salient points about the implementation side of the...
Mike Yon sent this with the words, "These are the guys you needed when you broke your arm." Seriously. It would have been worth the accident to see their bird descend on northbound Mopac and shoot fl...
The VA has taken a huge step forward in righting its wrongs with the GI Bill brouhaha by issuing $3,000 emergency checks to veterans who have yet to receive housing benefits. The money quote:Starting...
Note: While my arm is healing, I'll do my best to drop by and divvy out small, decadent portions of interesting links like so many amuse-bouche.There's a war in Afghanistan that hasn't reached the me...
I haven't typed with one hand since I was a thirteen year old trying to figure out what a/s/l stood for, but here I am again. This past Saturday I was on my way to the Austin gun show (the biggest in...
Not much has changed since I posted my love letter to the VA last week. Just from today's Facebook status updates I saw these messages from friends in my old company:"VA has not finished processing m...
At times he must have been no more than two hundred feet from me, but I never had the privilege to meet Jordan Shay. Together we chewed up the most inhospitable terrain on earth, and back on Ft. Lewi...
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened." - The one true prophet, Obi-Wan Ken...
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