Why I Joined the Navy

As this website says, I am a veteran, but I want to share a little more about that background. I joined the Navy to serve America. A good part of that was helping build a deterrent to what I knew was a coming competition with a growing China, a country with a recent history of oppressing its own people and the potential to expand further across the Asia-Pacific region, including into Taiwan.

I was a young ensign when terrorists attacked our nation on September 11, 2001, and my career was shaped by that attack and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Our ship, the USS Bataan, got underway off the Atlantic coast on September 11, ready to render aid to New York. We deployed a week later on our originally scheduled deployment, but we knew its nature would be much different. A few months later, off the coast of Pakistan, our embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit, the 26th MEU, supported the opening phase of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

A few years later, we supported the opening phases of the second U.S. war in Iraq. I had additional deployments in the region supporting counterterrorism and stabilization operations, with some humanitarian operations in between.

Continuing to Serve After Retirement

My service to the Navy continued for a few years after I retired from active duty, as a senior Navy civilian in the Pentagon. I supported our withdrawal from Afghanistan and accompanying Operation Allies Welcome, disaster operations, and our efforts to provision equipment to Ukraine.

I also supported replenishment of those weapons and strengthening our munitions industrial base in response to the war in Ukraine and, later, Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Throughout all of that, my values remained steadfast. I kept asking:

• Is what I am doing helping protect people from those who seek to persecute or oppress them?

• Does it strengthen the people within the Navy and help elevate them so they can succeed in the defense of our nation and democracy?

• Are our people empowered to speak up, particularly when wrong is occurring, to help us move forward collectively as a nation?

These are values that I maintain, and it is with those values in mind that in 2025 I left my civilian position at the Pentagon. It was a challenging choice, and I considered whether I could remain to try to continue to be an internal advocate for these ideals. In the end, it was clear that doing so would have been difficult, if not impossible, and I chose to leave my civilian position rather than be an enabler of injustice.

Service Beyond the Uniform

One of the key points I emphasized when I retired from active duty was that my call to service does not end when I take off the uniform. My service would take different forms in my community, alongside a never-ending commitment to our Constitution.

I have continued that service as a Scout leader, a recreational league coach, and, most recently, an increasingly active advocate for social justice.

I learned quite a few things throughout my naval career: some through experience, some through education, including the Naval War College, and some through a zeal to learn on my own. There are others with greater expertise than I have on many subjects. Still, I believe my experience and education give me a strong foundation for understanding the strategic challenges our nation faces and the dangers to our security that can cause lasting, irreversible harm.

Lessons in Winning Hearts and Minds

“Winning the hearts and minds” is a catchphrase that is often mocked, but there are misunderstandings behind it and lessons that apply to everyday life.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, we learned through hard experience the dangers of young adult men having no economic outlets. This group was particularly susceptible to radicalization and, in turn, fighting against our own forces and the populace we were striving to protect.

Winning hearts and minds is often less about changing people’s views or getting them to like you. Forgive the pun, but that ship has often sailed. It is about avoiding pushing others further toward the point where we cannot win a conflict because, through our own actions, we have radicalized too many.

We have seen this throughout history, as colonial powers oppressed their populations to the point of no return. One can look at our own nation’s revolutionary history as an example.

Applying Those Lessons to Our Communities

There are many parallels to that hearts-and-minds analogy in everyday life.

Every once in a while, I see a community post about teens out on a Friday night who are probably causing a little more trouble than they should. We tend to blame the teens or their parents but often fail to look within our own community. What outlets have we provided where they can safely participate?

This is just one simple analogy, but I use it to highlight some broader global consequences of how America is self-destructing as a global power through the actions of the Trump administration.

We recently hosted a dinner party at our home, and the question came up: Has anyone changed their position, or is the economy all that people care about?

I answered that, for many, it is the economy. Not everyone has the luxury or time to follow current events and dive into the facts. The circumstances are vastly different, and it would not be fair to equate armed conflict with our social struggles. Still, there are parallels in how our actions shape people’s trust, attitudes, and willingness to support our institutions.

Confronting My Own Assumptions About ICE

When we see federal agents from ICE in our streets, masked and unwilling to properly identify themselves or be transparent about their actions, it changes how people view their government. Their assaults in our communities and against our citizens have permanently shifted the hearts and minds of many Americans, this American included.

I have confronted my previous assumptions: They are only targeting criminals. Immigrants should only come through legal paths.

I have recently come to challenge those assumptions this way: If someone has committed a crime, why aren’t we prosecuting them first, sentencing them, and then deporting them after their sentence is completed? Wouldn’t ensuring that justice is served through our courts first keep us safer? Or are we accepting a false pretext to justify judicial injustice?

I also challenge the mindset surrounding legal paths. When we charge $100,000 to be able to obtain an H-1B visa, is there really a legal path to come into this country?

Through all of this, how much trust in all federal law enforcement has been lost because of ICE’s actions?

Military personnel tend to have a strong faith in law enforcement. There is an aspect of service that we share, and that respect has been part of my own internal fiber in supporting law enforcement.

Unfortunately, I now see ICE as a clear and present danger to our communities. I did not serve our nation to allow it to violate the rights of our citizens.

The Strategic Consequences Beyond Our Borders

Beyond ICE, the Iran War is a strategic failure with long-term consequences for energy and our strategic deterrence.

Tariffs are a tax and undermine our partnerships. Canada and NATO are not our enemies, but we have strategically weakened those partnerships and our ability to deter or act decisively in future conflicts.

Why I Oppose a Livestreamed Execution

I was, and remain, appalled by DOD’s announcement of plans to livestream an execution. If it were to occur, it would create a martyr for those who promote terror. We would lose our legitimacy as a moral protector worldwide and forever harm trust in our armed forces.

As a veteran who was on active duty at the time of Hasan’s treason to our country, I understand the anger and fear he created. Democracy and freedom throughout the world are not served by rolling out a 56-year-old paraplegic man and publicly executing him.

A challenge in federal district court remains certain, with appeals to a circuit court and the Supreme Court making an execution occurring this year unlikely. In my view, this announcement serves as a distraction from the Iran War and a calculated attempt to gain support from military personnel, including many who remember this treason.

There was overwhelming outrage after the administration announced its intent to livestream an execution, and, for now, that outrage has succeeded in stopping those plans. However, although collective voices and advocacy halted those plans in this instance, that effort focused on one circumstance. The broader culture being pushed within the Pentagon, one that would allow such an event, remains a danger. That flawed understanding of what it means to be a warrior in our modern world risks costing us hearts and minds worldwide and setting us up to lose future conflicts before they even begin.

Seeing Through Fear and Distraction

We must see through the tactics of fear and anger. Yes, we are shocked by them, but I believe that is what this administration wants: to use instances such as live-streaming an execution as a distraction from high energy prices, from the disinformation campaign to undermine election confidence, and from ICE’s terrorism and punitive campaigns against sitting members of Congress and electorates that do not support the administration.

It also distracts from the increasingly high cost of medical care and the growing number of people in our community who do not have employer-provided healthcare, as many Americans are left behind in the gig economy.

Why I Created This Website

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. This is just one piece of why I created this website. My commitment to service is front and center at all times.

I am going to choose to find the positives that remain. But I also want an outlet to express my views on the challenges our nation faces from the perspective of a veteran.

A Veteran who has not and will not stop supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. An obligation that I took freely without mental reservation or purpose of evasion.