Smoke Gets in Your Eyes As we began our descent into Bien Hoa Air Base, darkness was settling over the Vietnamese countryside. We came in fast and high to discourage anti-aircraft fire. There was black smoke rising from dozens of fires as I looked out of the window. Each air-pocket bump and plume of smoke […]
Wayward Son: Chapter 2 Read More »
They’re Coming to Take Me Away Where does one start in trying to explain the definitive event of one’s life, as well as that of a nation and several generations? People, especially young people, don’t understand. They were raised on Black Hawk Down, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Not that I blame them. By all rights, Vietnam
Wayward Son: Chapter 1 Read More »
The sky stretches forever in every direction and a biting wind adds to the feeling of loneliness. Meager grasses blow in the breeze like strange fingers trying to catch hold of the sun. A lone hawk calls in the distances as it sweeps and dips over the sloping grasslands of the arid Mongolian Steppe. The
The Mongolian Takhi: Honoring the Spirit Horse Read More »
Most everyone has dreams, some good and some not so much. Every time we drop off to sleep, our hard-worked brains get the chance to screw with us, and who can blame them for exploiting it? The nightmares vary from one person to the next: I’ve known people who routinely dream of being chased by homicidal lunatics, being
The Recurring, Unsettling Dream of Accidental Reenlistment Read More »
I was born in Colorado and know how to drive in bad weather, but over the last decade, I drove what might be the worst winter vehicle imaginable: a 1975 Datsun 280Z. Until recently, my year-round daily driver had been a two-seat, rear-wheel-drive sports car designed in the late 1960s. It was engineered in Japan
The Datsun 280Z: My Decade with the Spirit of the Open Road Read More »
Thomas Jefferson’s Wall of Separation letter is a defining document in American culture, and for good reason. It was so powerful that Americans coined the term “separation of church and state” based off of one of its most famous lines: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should
Thomas Jefferson’s Wall of Separation Revisited Read More »