Metamorphosis

I made my escape after 5 hardcore days of my VA Beach friends trying to give me liver cancer and even though every part of me just wanted to get back on the road I was torn.  It was hard to say goodbye to the friends and places.  Memory is a dirty liar when it comes to things like this, and for some reason even though I was haunted by the experiences of a life that was gone, there was a part of me that didn’t want to leave.  I met Colin on my... Read More

Necropolis

I step off the death flight still in a daze from the pills and boredom and immediately throw my kit into my rental minivan (I got a free upgrade so just shut the fuck up right now).  Power through a three hour drive from DC to VA Beach for the first Halloween I’ve spent stateside for as long as I can remember.  My brain is having trouble adjusting.  Maybe it’s the Ambiens, maybe culture shock, but everything starts to seem weird.  And not... Read More

The White Plank

The seasons change like a punch in the mouth.  One minute you are hunched over, eyes squinting in the light, shamal blowing dust in your eyes, bowed before the sun.  The next minute you are shaken by thunder, wind, and mud that falls from the sky.  Not sure what is really happening, you are half dressed, exhausted fingers desperately groping for your rifle at 4 am when a massive thunderclap explodes overhead, only moments later to stumble outside... Read More

Madhouse

The helo came in and we got resupplied recently and man did we need it. It seemed like I’ve been living off cans of tunafish and beans for the last week now. Don’t even have an opener and my leatherman got punked so I’ve been forced to use a fucking wrench. Fuck it… I’d use a clothes hanger if I had to – hunger kicking in the way it has. The only thing we had here besides canned food is peanut butter and a shitload... Read More

Back to the Future – by Brad I.

Maybe it’d be simpler to just sum up this 3-day saga into chewable little bits – portions ripe for consumption. Well, the truth is, I can’t – or rather – won’t do that. Fuck that. Life doesn’t spill out its narrative at that pace, no matter how much this all-encompassing ‘postmodern’ framework tries to convince us otherwise. It’s an epic, sprawling clusterfuck of success and failure, of sheer... Read More

9-11

I’ve been working my ass off all week but by a stroke of luck we got today off. 9/11 bitches. So I took a Stacker 3 and powered through some shit here on the site just to keep this place relevant. Hell or High Water is a blast of pure New Orleans glory, an article about my trip down there for disaster relief. The Ultimate Revolution is a transcript of Aldous Huxley from back in the 60′s – just kinda cool if you got some time to tweak... Read More

Sea Creatures

Well here I am over in the shitbox again. I watched a haji piss in the dirt while smoking a cigarette today in 120 degree heat, my bro says to me “dude, these are dirt people”, well to be more accurate they are dirt monkeys but whatever. Oh fuck it.. I’ve got about a million things to do here but I’m totally fucking exhausted. I feel like time is sucking me into a whirlpool. I have nothing but free time but it is almost impossible... Read More

Lost in OC

Here I am, stagnating in the states. I remember a very senior and experienced SEAL once told me when I was about to take a vacation “Leave! What the fuck do you need leave for!? You just get soft and weak on leave!” That fucker was right in a lot of ways. You give yourself too much time to dwell on the banality of fungus growing on rocks flying through outer space and your reflexes slow down, thoughts get slurred, your determination... Read More

Space Madness

As of today I am officially a founding member of the contractor fight club. No, not literally, but as of yesterday we dropped off our clients at the airport and have absolutely nothing to do for at least the next two weeks. After that they are scheduled to return to B-dad and only make periodic visits back up to our site. This means that all we have to do up here is work out, conduct self-directed training with weapons and tactics, punch the heavy... Read More

Iraq (The Movie) Part III: “This time its personal”

Why is it such a hassle to go on deployment? Every time it’s the same shit but it never stops being a pain in the ass. I mean I’m used to all the issues. Preparing, packing, getting bills in order, saying goodbye to friends and family, dealing with the airport bullshit – hey look, going new places rocks but a lot of travel really fucking sucks. I think maybe it’s the hardships and complications that gives you an opportunity to either experience... Read More