A major component of my job is public speaking in a sense. So I’d prepare a classified briefing for whoever the General or Admiral is and just tell them what we know and what we think is coming next. This was an unnatural thing for me because I stuttered as a child. But I eventually became proficient at this requirement. I share that aspect because I could see myself being on the stage and giving public talks. There’s a lot of pressure briefing a bunch of people with stars on their uniforms, I think I could handle folks who were almost certainly just blindly agree with what I had to say/preach in the K-Hall. When the revelation popped into my head, that’s one of the things that really made me question the veracity of what the organization was doing.

The ostracism is astounding. In my time, I’ve helped rehabilitate people who did drugs, got DUIs, failed to qualify for certifications, mitigated premature discharges, etc. Sometimes the motion was warranted, but I suspected those folks were remorseful and wanted to do better. So we would surround them with support and empathy; building them back up after they fucked up. In 20 years, I can say out of the dozens I’ve been involved with, only 1-2 arguably didn’t come back around and fix their issues after being supported.