For several months now I have been debating whether or not to post in this journal, or even keep it up... My inspirations for writing are few and far between, and yet, I am glad, on days like today that I have this journal, because it allows me a chance to chronicle and remember the things I have done, and the people I have met. One of the people ( Read more... )

Every year on this date, I try to remember where I was, and what I was doing on 11 September, 2001. Some may say that I do it out of some morbid curiosity to relive the past, to keep open a slowly healing wound, or, simply because I'm a glutton for excessive displays of emotion. Probably all right, but nonetheless I find that retelling the story ( Read more... )

So today, I got a text saying "Gavin has won, he got his license." I'm happy for Gavin, I really am, but at the same time I'm disappointed... not in Gavin, but in myself... There was a running joke/bet that he'd get his license before I did, and I know that it was all in fun, but now I'm the very last one without a license... I know my friends ( Read more... )

I didn't know how, or what I wanted to write when I started this note, and in many ways, I'm still uncertain of how it will turn out. All I know is that I after seeing the HBO Film "Taking Chance" I felt compelled to write something... some thought... about what I saw ( Read more... )

What is a ceremony? Why do we have them? They're just points in time for us to waste our valuable time talking about the stuff that already happened, recall dates and names... Or are they something more? The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines ceremony as-

a formal act or series of acts prescribed by ritual, protocol, or conventionThus, a ( Read more... )

Everyone knows about the "miracle on ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, where Herb Brooks and the American Hockey Team defeated Soviet Russia's hockey powerhouse en route to defeating Iceland for a Gold Medal. Who can forget Al Michaels' famous "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!?" But last night the world witnessed an equally ( Read more... )

Yesterday, August 16, 2008... Precisely 4 years after the United States Army activated the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team for it's first deployment since the Vietnam War, the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team was sent again into the War Zone. This time, 1700 Citizen Soldiers will embark on a year-long quest to help bring peace and a semblance ( Read more... )

Tomorrow morning I'm headed to Midway Island for the 66th commemoration of the Battle of Midway. For those who don't know, the Battle of Midway has been called one of the turning points of World War II, and according to Naval Historian Allan Lloyd, "Midway is the most important Naval Battle in the History of the World..." In preparation for this ( Read more... )

(note: This post is written in my mind's eye ( Read more... )

Here I sit, at my desk in my office onboard the USS Missouri, and I begin to think about all the things that happened here, at this very desk, and moreover, what happened in this very special and hallowed place called Pearl Harbor. Everywhere I look I am constantly confronted by images... Images of battle, images of heroism, and images of history ( Read more... )