A friend forwarded me this quote the other day. It’s from the book Critical Conditions, by Stephen White. I haven’t read it before, but once I did, I understood it. The veterans and military spouses I work with offer me their time, their thoughts, their greatest hopes and their Read more…
This was originally posted on the Military Spouse Advocacy Network blog, and I’m honored to be working with them! You can read the original post, and find more great information for those who support service members and veterans most, by going here. In 2016, I wrote an article called “The Stripes Tell a Story…but Not the Read more…
For the first time in American History, the United States has been involved in a cross-generational conflict. Americans who were toddlers on 9/11 are now eligible to enlist in the military, and have the potential to serve overseas in a combat zone, literally on the same bases that their mothers Read more…
mentor (n) 1. a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. 2. an influential senior sponsor or supporter. From the first moment that a service member steps into an office or motor pool at a new duty station, they look around for someone to let them know what’s going on. If they’re smart, they sit back Read more…
The 82nd Airborne Division Advanced Airborne School Jumpmaster Course is three weeks long. It took me six months to complete it. There’s not a leadership course that doesn’t talk about the lessons that can be learned by failing. Failure lets us know that we’re not perfect; it helps us understand Read more…
I hear it often from veterans I talk to. I wish… I wish I could go back to the person I was before I joined the military. Consider that for a moment…is life so terrible now that you wish you didn’t exist? You don’t want to not be around, but Read more…
You don’t have to be in crisis to talk to a mental health professional. As a clinical mental health counselor, I often see veterans when life has spun out of control…the drinking has gotten too much, they’re about to lose their job, their family…their life. Metaphorically, if I were an Read more…
Veterans are like a bunch of caged lions and lionesses that have been released in the wild. When we were in the military, we were strong, capable. We were fearsome and wonderful to behold (most of us). We were Kings and Queens of our domain, in many instances; we were Read more…
“Offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defense” – George Washington. In other words, the best defense is a good offense. In my experience, however, veterans often deploy a kind of offensive defense in order to let anyone get close, when Read more…
“For those who fight to protect it, freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know” I often hear those words, and both agree and disagree. As a combat veteran, or even a veteran in general, I do appreciate things more now than I did before. I think that’s Read more…