Blogs for your consideration...
Over 20 years' worth of observations, recommendations, and considerations on life, family, and the military lie within these narratives. Cheers!
Ask ten service members at different points in their careers how they balance operational and garrison requirements and you’ll likely get ten different answers. For many, deployments represent the purest version of military service; the chance to finally do the job they trained for, focus on the mis...
At every major point in your military career, you need to pause and reassess. Does serving still make sense for you right now? What skills are you actually gaining along the way? How will your next move impact your family? Promotions, new duty stations, and exciting opportunities can look great on p...
If you’re lucky, you have parents, teachers, and guidance counselors guiding you through high school and helping you prepare for a relatively smooth transition into adulthood. Adulthood itself comes in many forms—entering the civilian workforce, attending college, or raising your right hand and join...
At the tactical and operational levels, today’s military force lives in a constant state of tension. The best-laid plans—innovation sprints, professional development goals, modernization roadmaps—can evaporate the moment a new problem drops from above. Strategic leaders pass down challenges (or, mor...
In the early stages of a military career, promotions tend to feel straightforward. Whether enlisted or officer, the first few advancements often follow a fairly predictable path. As long as a service member stays out of serious trouble—avoiding the obvious career killers like lying, cheating, or ste...
I was recently asked to take on yet another project. As I mentally reviewed the growing list of additional duties, taskers, meetings, and “quick favors” already filling my calendar, I kept my inner monologue to myself. Surely there were others with more capacity—fewer collateral duties, lighter work...
Just because something has been a certain way for some time doesn’t make it the best way. At every turn, the environment, political scene, or latest innovation impacts the variables surrounding the relativity of “best.” This conundrum doubles down when personalities, budgets, and adversarial changes...
“Readiness” is a buzzword heard across every branch of the U.S. military. As the nation’s ultimate line of defense, service members are expected to be fit, trained, and ready to serve at the will of the President—or, for the National Guard, their governor. In practice, readiness is measured through ...
No one likes to be threatened—physically, emotionally, or professionally. It’s bad leadership and bad business. Ultimatums are often disguised as choices, but in reality they present a single outcome at the expense of something significant. Do this or else.
If you report this safety violation, I’ll...
I regularly sit down with service members from every status and background, and I often find myself giving voice to the words they’ve been quietly avoiding: “Take the leap. Go for it.” But before I send anyone charging toward a new path, I hit pause—and start asking the uncomfortable questions that ...
I know no one joins the military because of the paid time off to have children—but it’s an incredible benefit, and one that’s still surprisingly rare in the civilian world. Over the past two decades, I’ve personally watched (and benefited from) how military parental leave policies have evolved. Even...
