February 2009
17 posts
“The resistance to the close-range killing of one’s own species is so great...”
– LtCol Dave Grossman, On Killing
The M4 rifle is designed to be lightweight, and carrying it around empty during twelve weeks of training felt like playing with a cap-gun. Loading a thirty-round magazine adds an appreciable heft that says very seriously to the carrier, “I am not a toy.”
A cynical teddy bear. →
A few weeks ago I finished the most mind-opening book I’ve read.
Today I heard someone yell, “Tripwire!” There was a bit of electrical cabling sticking up from the gravel and the guy was making a dumb joke, but it still sent two jolts through my brain. On a submarine, tripwire is a signal word used to indicate that some tactical threshold has been met. The range to an enemy surface combatant closes to within X yards. Another submarine’s...
“Wit is educated insolence.”
– Aristotle
The Afghanistan time zone is GMT+4:30. Why the thirty minutes?
“Poverty, privation and want are the school of a good soldier.”
– Napoleon
I carry it in my left breast pocket so that if, god forbid I get shot, maybe my iPhone will stop the bullet and the picture of me smiling and holding its remains gets passed around the internet, eventually making it to Steve Jobs, who becomes inspired to grant me free Apple products “for life,” a potentially marketable pun. My camera is in my other breast pocket, but that’s more...
Want to be respected by your subordinates? Asking them what they think before making a decision can’t hurt.
As a Naval Officer, I have always tried to be a bit inscrutable. Part of it is just my natural personality, but part of it is cultivated. I imagine that I picked up the conceit from a superior that at one point early in my career I looked up to. I like that the people I work with aren’t quite sure what to make of me, that my first impression takes a long time to develop.
A new assignment in the military is an opportunity for personal reinvention. There is no one who can remind you of who you are, freeing you to try to be who you want to be. I’m not the friendliest, most approachable of people. I am easily annoyed, and make little effort to hide my contempt for those that frustrate me.
So I’m in Afghanistan. Until I get bored, I will share with you my thoughts. Seeing as how I’m doing soldier-y military stuff in a far-off war zone, you can expect I’ll be thinking of soldier-y military stuff. So if that kind of thing interests you, stick around. I’ll show you some photos, too.