A Call for Action! "And Then They Came Home."

My disclaimer still applies, as you know, this is par for the course. If you are new to my blog, hopefully you are because with this one I'm appealing far and wide, be advised I have a super hero like ability to offend people. I don't know what it is but I'm exceptionally good at it. Anyways, on to the blog.

On occasion I have been known to pimp out certain things for a good cause. I promise you everything I put out there is near and dear to my heart and normally is underfunded. I spent a great deal of time and effort raising money for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation because my wife nearly died of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. I've spent time raising money for various charities that ensure the families of our Wounded Warriors are taken care of while they're healing. I've spent some time pimping out a few charities that send stuff to the troops overseas currently deployed to combat zones. I limit the last one because I will only support the charities that send stuff specifically to my fellow combat arms service members located in remote shit-holes out in the middle of nowhere who live off of glorified MRE's, cold inadequate showers, live in shacks supported by sandbags, and generally receive some kind of enemy contact on a regular basis. I only support groups that send stuff to those guys because they are the ones who need it and appreciate it most. IF you are interested in supporting that cause please feel free to visit this site: Support Our Marines. However, this particular blog isn't about any of those. 

This particular blog and pimp session is about something different. It's about those who came home. Those who struggle with the VA. Those who try and rebuild a semblance of their life as they knew it. Those who often times toy with the idea of suicide. Those that you've given your thanks to, waved your flag, and sported that yellow ribbon for. This one is for them. Now, I know many of you truly support the troops and do what you can. You take time to thank them when you see them. You take time to talk with them. You take time to think about them on days where it's not all over the news. For that I thank you.

Yet, at the moment, I have to ask for just a little bit more. All of us who served have sacrificed. We leave our loved ones for long periods of time. Our loved ones often times feel abandoned even though they know why we do what we do. We sacrifice a piece of ourselves without complaint. Some sacrifice more than others and some sacrifice it all. I'd be lying to you if I told you we did it for you, the flag, the country, freedoms, patriotism, or any other intangible thing you can come up with. It may start that way but in the end it boils down to the fact that we willingly lay our lives on the line for each other. When you're over there and you hear that all familiar "zoooo-clack" of a bullet passing near you, you feel the heat from fires of the explosions around you, you feel the pressure of the blast concussion, the adrenaline coursing through your veins, the heightened awareness, or the gut wrenching, soul tearing pain of sending a brother home draped under the American flag all those intangible things fade away. You're left there in horrible inhumane circumstances with two things: you and the men your with. That's it. Then, if you're lucky enough, you go home. To a land more foreign than what you just left. A land filled with hostilities and uncertainty. A land you once knew so well that you can't even identify with any longer. 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what this is about. 

A young Marine that I had the pleasure of serving with, Garrett Phillip Anderson, is an amazing writer filled with mind blowing ideas. He is also a gifted and talented film maker. He has an idea. He is getting together with some of the Fellujah veterans he knows who survived a horrific day of combat and is filming their story. Not the story of the blood and gore of the day. The story of when they came home. He wants to highlight what veterans go through. What they deal with. Obstacles they have to overcome. Most importantly the fact that the battle is over but the war within themselves continues to rage on unabated. 

You can sample his amazing talents by visiting his blog here:

Iraq/Afghanistan and More 

He has even been featured on numerous occasions in the Doonesbury Military Blog - The Sandbox.

If you took a minute to read any of his posts you'll quickly realize that this guy has the ability to rip your heart out and show you the darkest places you didn't know existed. Can you imagine how powerful his film is going to be? I can. That's why I'm writing this.

Since veterans have sacrificed so much, I want you to do a little sacrificing yourself. I'm not asking much. I'm asking for what you can spare. What you can miss and give up without hurting yourself financially. Can you give up a few drinks? That's enough right there. Seriously, if everyone who read this decided to give $5 to $25 then you've helped more than you'll ever realize. You can show your support through sacrifice by going to the following website and giving what you can.

"And Then They Came Home"

After you've given please make sure to visit and like their Facebook Page here:

Facebook - And Then They Came Home

When you're done doing that I want you to share this blog post and spread it like wild fire. Pass it along as often as possible. Ask others to sacrifice just a little for those who sacrificed so much. Be active. Tell people about it.

Sacrifice, Share, and stand in Solidarity behind those who willingly walk in harms way.

Thanks for listening.

The Senator

Thoughts on War

As per usual, my normal disclaimer applies to all my writing.

I must take a second to express that this is not an official statement. This is the opinion of the author and does not represent the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, the United States Marine Corps, or anyone that I have missed that could potentially court martial the author. This is only the opinion of the author.

Recently I've been posting a lot of anti-war propaganda. Considering I've spent the last 15 years in the Marine Corps infantry many people think this is rather Ironic. I don't. Honestly, I haven't met anyone who has truly experienced war that is really for it. Most of us are caught in this strange type of purgatory where we've grown to truly hate war but miss it terribly. It's exceptionally strange.

If you look in our past the majority of our Nation's leaders were anti-war. Which I find entirely ironic because we go to war so often. Some of the greatest quotes of warfare have escaped the lips of our General's who lead our youth into combat and from the high ranking politicians that declare the war and tell the General's to act. Yet, the next generation of politicians does the same. It's exceptionally strange. 

There is a peculiarity about war that those who have never been in combat will never understand. Good men go to war at our Nation's calling and spill their blood on the battlefield. Each person who returns is forever changed. They've seen and possibly committed horrors that go against their very nature. They are left forever scarred by that experience and left to receive treatment from someone who has never experienced anything like it. My own therapist constantly makes comparisons of my experiences of trauma caused by combat to those who experience trauma caused by a car accident. This perplexes me because I've been in car accidents but I've never had a car transform into something that shot at me. I've never had the opportunity to shoot back when experiencing a car accident. So I've never quite understood my therapists point. I think that maybe where we lose something when it comes to treatment after the fact. The thing is, war is nasty.

Last night I watched a movie entitled "The Season of the Witch". It's not a bad movie, not a great movie either. Yet, in the beginning of the movie there is a sequence of two soldiers serving during the Crusades. In the first several battle scenes they were in combat with regular armies. Their spiritual leader spoke of killing in the name of God. This, by the way, is a strange concept for me but that's an entirely different subject. Then these warriors came upon a siege where after fighting with the outlying forces they broke into a city. In a smoky haze from the fires within the city they set to their duties of attacking those within the walls. As the smoke began to clear all that remained were the slain bodies of women and children. Not another soldier in sight. That scene forced me to pause the movie and walk away from the TV for a few. It was all too familiar. Today we rarely cause devastation with blades yielded by our own hands but we cause even more horrific scenes. 

Today we cause devastation from a distance for most. The majority of that damage is caused by pilots thousands of feet above the earth. By a 19 year old kid thousands of miles away sitting behind a computer screen that shows more the likes of a video game than reality. By bombs that we fling thousands of meters. Most of the devastation is done from a distance. After all most General's preach that you should never send a man where you can send a bombardment of bombs, artillery, and mortars first. Reconnaissance by fire is a standard tactic. It saves the lives of our men by killing nearly everything before they get there. But when they get there they are left to witness what is left.

That's what a lot of people just don't understand. In combat you often wonder what it's all for. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? What is this accomplishing? How is this making my country safer?

Again, it's exceptionally strange. War should be kept as a last resort. When all else fails. It shouldn't be a preventative measure. War doesn't prevent much. Not that I can see anyway. Aside from prevention war costs more than the toll on the battlefield. It costs the citizens of the country perpetrating the war. War is, and always has been, expensive. It costs in lives, it costs in mending the wounded, it costs in logistics. Every aspect of war costs. 


War being used as a last resort should also have a clear end-state. Win or lose, war should have that specific end-state: this is it, we've done what we came to do and now we're going home. If an occupation of any form should take place it should be meticulously planned and orchestrated before we even go to war. Not haphazardly put together once you're there. That will only extend the problem. 


Ideally, the threat of war should be enough of a deterrent to prevent war. Yet, we continuously go to war. We continuously attempt to influence everyone else. The result is more pain and suffering for those sent to battle and those who are born witness to what's left afterwards. Those who are sent to wage war are left with their souls torn asunder for what they may have done and what they have witnessed. Those who were innocent of the conflict are left a devastated landscape to attempt to repair. Left with memories of what was done to their life. Left in turmoil. Then the war machine marches on stealing all but a glimmer of hope.


In literature, prose, plays, and movies wars are glorified. Epic battles with heroes defeating villains. Tales of courage. Legends being born. Honor and glory being achieved. A warped reality. I find it odd that the literature of the West glorifies something so horrible. Is it the beginning of the desensitization of an upcoming generation who will then strive to go to war so they can earn their own glory? If only they'd realize that the most glorious moment one can experience is when war is evaded, the war machine sent home, the lives spared, the souls given mercy, the innocence left to remain intact for one more breath.