Keeping it Real

It may just be my pet-peeve, but folks who have not served using military metaphors glibly without an appreciation of what they mean to someone who has served their country in uniform. Case-in-point, guys (or gals) using "Band of Brothers" to reference random groups of their friends or acquaintances. Listen up! Just because you had beers together or played some game with some folks does not make you anything like a "Band of Brothers". When you serve with someone, before you ever earn the right describe yourself with some appellation, you train, you drill, you sweat, you suck it up, you miss meals, you miss sleep, you keep the pace, you DON'T GIVE UP. Sometimes that means picking up the slack for a buddy, encouraging the guy who is faltering even when you feel like sh*t. In the normal course of realistic training, there is going to be pain, injuries, and blood; and that is just training. In an operational environment, folks go down range, they go over the hor

There are some things that just take you by surprise.  I never expected to become so familiar with cancer treatment regimens this year. It is not the kind of place that you take field trips to visit; but when you sit down in the waiting area of a cancer treatment facility, you come face-to-face with how people cope (or don't cope) with the very real possibility of their own death. I have seen the faces of fear, resignation, determination, peace, and most sadly, the vacant stare of someone who is already checked out. There really is no way to understand the cancer experience unless you have walked that path; even then, Hammer 5 and I are walking this path as family members who are providing support.  We're not at the center of the storm, but we have a pretty good view of the havoc brought by the storm. Sitting down in the waiting area during one of our many medical appointments, this whole season became that much more surreal when we sat down next to a dear f