[March 22, 2025] As I look back upon those times we were planning and building in preparation to receive the great Surge, I am surprised our Engineers were not attacked while convoying. I suppose luck played a part, as it will do during combat, but there is never an excuse to unnecessarily expose your troops to enemy action.… Read More »
[February 21, 2025] The day begins badly. It’s Sunday, January 21st; we begin our day attending a memorial service for an Engineer Soldier killed in the line of duty. I sit in a row of chairs reserved for Colonels and Sergeant Majors, front row. Oddly, beside me is an empty chair with COL White’s name affixed. He is… Read More »
[February 14, 2025] Yesterday, Scott Johnson from PowerLineBlog.com posted an article that is of importance in exposing the “censorship-industrial complex” in Washington. I’m not the type to be overdramatic or hyperbolic but I think all of us have come to see the concerted, coordinated effort by Democrats to censor ordinary Americans. Matt Taibbi is the man on the… Read More »
[February 12, 2025] Persistence paid off for a retired guard at Çavuştepe, an ancient Urartian Fortified site in eastern Turkey. Yes, he was a guard at the site to prevent tourists from stealing bits and pieces of priceless artifacts from this archaeological site. Yet, using logic and persistence, he was able to decipher a 3,000-year-old dead language. Mehmet… Read More »
[December 27, 2024] Learn how you learn. Not learning how to learn. In order to improve yourself in any way—efficiently and effectively—you must know how you learn and then work hard to improve that same method. This is necessary because we use our brains’ preferred method to understand and learn new concepts and information. I’ll use myself as… Read More »
[December 26, 2024] There were so many Generals between III Corps and MNF-Iraq that it was hard for me to know who worked for who and, more importantly, who had the authority to direct our Engineers to do specific tasks. Every senior officer, it seemed, wanted us to do something – all of which made sense – but… Read More »
[December 16, 2024] In 2006, the Coalition Strategic Plan in Iraq was to reduce the number of U.S. bases and personnel, consolidating them into larger bases near Baghdad. The Iraqi military would take over those bases and increasingly engage in combat, doing so slowly as they gained numbers, experience, and a professionalized force. This plan was feasible and… Read More »
[December 11, 2024] On this date in 2006, the Iraq War was entering a new phase. There was yet no new Army Operations Order, no special briefings, no new command guidance, or change in leadership. We would not even recognize this date for what would later become – the beginning of pre-Surge deployments of troops designed to destroy… Read More »
[November 29, 2024] In the 1960s, there was a popular idea circulating in academia that the world’s population growth was rapidly exceeding its environmental and technical limits to support itself. The results would be widespread starvation, affecting mostly children in poor nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of southwest Asia. Ideas behind this thinking started in the… Read More »
[November 18, 2024] As frequent readers of my website know, I had knee replacement surgery a month ago. The week following My surgery, I used a walker to help stabilize my walk and to act as a safety measure to prevent falling. I rarely traveled outside my home but when I did venture out, I experienced another world… Read More »