I was done! Four years, zero months of active-duty Army service. I arrived at LAX craving donuts and fried chicken during the wee hours of the morning —I was ecstatic about the endless possibilities that await. As I exited the airport and gazed on the busy streets of Los Angeles, I remembered ten years ago … Read more
You know when someone does something crucial for you, something you’re not even sure you’d be capable of doing yourself, something so grand that you feel you’re indebted to this person? This kind of powerful feeling of indebtedness consumed my life and led me to march blindly in a direction that had nothing to do … Read more
I was returning home from Iwakuni, Japan, where I had been working as an aviation maintenance supervisor. My six-month deployment had been mentally taxing and endlessly tedious. I’d like to say that after returning from this six-month deployment, I was feeling like I was coming back to where I belonged, and that my family, friends, … Read more
A warm breeze, the smell of the ocean, soft flakey sand, orange-red skies at sunset, the power to make this world my home. The freedom to choose where I would live, what things I would do, and with whom I would spend time. This is what I call homecoming. It is coming back to what … Read more
I was coming home from a four-month deployment aboard the USS Enterprise. Despite the cold steel, ever present funky smells of jet fuel and human bodies, I felt comfortable and at home with my people aboard the ship. I was flying directly off the ship, from the coast of Virginia and back to Florida, where … Read more