Author Archives: Douglas R. Satterfield
[March 13, 2023] My life was about to become more difficult and complex, or so I thought. As a senior Captain, I had been given command of saving a broken U.S. Army company with the singular mission to “fix it.” Unbeknown to me, my life would get much simpler in a good way and much less anxiety provoking. … Read More »
[March 12, 2023] People are not after being happy. They are interested in not being hurt. Most folks do not want to be bubbly, enthusiastic, and full of laughter and smiles. That is not what they mean by “I want to be happy.” They mean, “I don’t want to be anxious or in pain.” People want to avoid… Read More »
[March 11, 2022] “Learn to connect the dots, Satterfield.” My commander was on my case about not properly using our military intelligence to properly position my Infantry Company in an upcoming training battle. I thought I was doing a good job, obviously not. I was not able to make the mental leap from the many intell inputs to… Read More »
[March 10, 2023] People often talk to me about my courage; they say because of my time in combat, but that is not precisely correct. I just learned to be afraid of the right things. During my time in the Army, I’ve seen that not saying what is true is what really has terrible consequences. Whatever I had… Read More »
[March 9, 2023] Yesterday, I saw a Robin in my backyard for the first time this winter. The annual arrival of birds, especially Robins, heralds springtime’s arrival and affirm that life continues. And so it was, as I grew up in the Deep South with so many of my relatives who still live there, influenced by “southern culture”… Read More »
[March 8, 2023] “Saddam Swings” blared the headlines of the Daily News. In the early morning hours of December 30, 2006, disgraced Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging. I was in Iraq at the time, just a couple of miles away. His hanging changed my thoughts on the death penalty. There are “crimes” that the proper… Read More »
[March 7, 2023] Can we learn from war? What lessons can we learn for future wars? Is war inevitable? Do we get our history right about war? Of course, there are exceptions about getting history right and Mark Moyar does exactly that in his latest book, Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968 (700+ pages) and answers these questions. … Read More »
[March 6, 2023] Since a young age, as far back as I can remember, I was fascinated by stories told by my mother and grandmother (Bigmama, as we called her). But also those told by the many military veterans who lived in the small town where my family settled. I would call them ‘great stories’ in my unsophisticated… Read More »
[March 5, 2023] For decades, being a U.S. military man and having lived overseas has allowed us to date and marry women from other nations. Go to any military base, and you will see this for yourself. Recently, that phenomenon exploded into a massive trend of men from all walks of life going elsewhere outside the United States… Read More »
[March 4, 2023] Think briefly about what Adolf Hitler should have done if he wanted to win the war. He would have enslaved the Jews and the Gypsies and worked them all to support his war effort toward victory. Of course, he wanted to liquidate them, but logic would say he would kill them only after he had… Read More »