This is a brief introduction to give you a little bit of background and to establish the fact that I, like many people on the internet, am as exceptionally unqualified to give advice or solve the world’s problems as the next individual. I have been a few places and seen a few things, so I’ll share the one thing we all have: a perspective.
As the title of this blog suggests, I am a veteran. I served in the Army for 27 years, 9 months and 13 days (but who’s counting right?) and have been retired for a few years now. I have served overseas in forward deployed regions, completed multiple tours in combat zones, and I have a laundry list of aches and pains to show for it. I have physical scars and mental scars and to some degree I think that is true for many, if not all veterans.
I’ve lived in other countries for over five years of my life. I’ve lived in eight mainland states, spent five years in Hawaii, and have traveled to most of the lower 48. I’ve officially held three military specialties and unofficially worked in three more. I enlisted at 17 and stayed in until I was almost 45. I served under five different Presidents and through two different military draw-downs. As my wife frequently reminds me, housing areas are called neighborhoods, sweeping the house is done with a broom, and there are some things in life that don’t require a contingency plan or exit strategy. I’m still not quite convinced of the last one.
Why does this blog exist?
- Simply put, because I don’t believe in simplistic responses to complex issues.
- Because I believe there are three sides to every story and while I’m interested in opposing perspectives, what I’d really like to have is a discussion based on the third side, the truth.
- And because I’ve found that trying to have a dialogue on social media threads is like pulling an angry cat out of a small hole bare-handed. 99% of the time the entrenched cat ends up further back in the hole; you end up scratched, scarred and bloody; and the end-state is the cat remains in the hole, just more aggravated than it was when it swiped out at the world in the first place. The cat would rather you just pay tribute, say it is a good cat, and leave a treat as you move along.
Topics you may find on this blog could be based on politics, news, philosophy, science, traffic, laws, pets, art, entertainment, veterans concerns, disaster response, or simply the life and death struggles we go through every day… like how you tell your wife you washed one of her favorite sweaters on hot by accident. I may see a comment or post on social media and respond to that topic here. I may see a news article that stimulates a thought, or I may get conned by one of my dogs and come here to process whether I actually am “more evolved”.
I hope you find it interesting and I welcome any feedback. I promise to take that feedback with a dysfunctional grain of salt.
The Unvarnished Veteran 