1. I’m feeling uncharacteristically wistful this morning, so I’ll probably delete this later, but nothing drove me into a deeper rut than being torn away from a brotherhood of barbarians and misfits and dropped into the lifeless ranks of the soft, sedentary corporate elite...

2. All the money and prestige in the world will never be able to match the raw satisfaction of sweating and suffering for something alongside a crew of hard-nosed, meat-eating monsters.

If you don’t know what I mean, I’m truly sorry.

I wish I could say my transition was seamless, but it wasn’t. I felt like I had a limb amputated, for years. And when my boys would go downrange or I would lose a friend in some hellhole, it would drive me even deeper...

Truth be told, I’m still trying to surface, and these complicated feelings remain a constant struggle... but it does get better with time, although I imagine it will never completely go away for many of us.

We all come from different walks and we all served in different ways...

And unless you were a dirtbag or a turd, you should be proud of that. I thank the Lord everyday I took a step into the dark after college and enlisted (like an idiot), because I tasted something so sweet I can’t imagine living the rest of my life not having know that...

I didn’t end up doing exactly what I set out to do, but I stumbled upon a winning lottery ticket that put me shoulder to shoulder with some of the most incredible men I’ve ever known and in places I hardly knew existed. When times are tough, I think about those fellas...

Especially those who are dead or disappeared, and I remember how precious this life I have is... that I can’t let the darkness win. I have to fight like hell, even if it’s in this strange new battlefield.

Keep fighting gents, and don’t let the ghosts and vampires take you down.