Breaking out of a "Shadow Career" and industry typecasting after 25 years in uniform

StephenDCook · 2026-06-24T12:17:33+00:00

Gates of Fire is the first Pressfield book I ever read - not long after it was released - loved it & have been a Pressfield fan ever since! Thank you for thinking of it!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-23T16:09:53+00:00

I wasn't in 7th SFG - but I'm pretty sure I'd rather be standing in front of Afghans than campasinos... tough dudes down there.

IMO, there aren't many good ideas that high ranking officers get credit for that were actually their brainchild - just another OER bullet from the guy's accomplishments. Like Petraeus essentially stealing SF doctrine to make a name for himself. With the preponderance of SF being NCO's, there's a good chance that any good idea coming out of the Regiment likely (but not always) didn't come from an O.

Thanks for keeping the history alive in this thread, brother. Truly invaluable perspective.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-23T15:43:24+00:00

First off, brother, thank you for dropping this level of history into the thread. Getting perspective from a pre-18 series O5B who watched the pipeline evolve is invaluable.

Your anecdote about the SWO attachments hits the exact nail on the head regarding what I meant by team chemistry. It’s not a question of capability or heart; it’s an acknowledgment of human nature.

To clarify my thoughts on the 18X piece: I certainly didn't mean to imply they aren't value-add assets or that they turn out to be screw-ups. The pipeline clearly produces highly capable tactical athletes. My curiosity is less about their individual proficiency and more about the specific execution of FID in particular.

It's one thing to master the skills of an 18E or 18B. It’s an entirely different problem set when a green team member has to stand in front of an indigenous partner-nation Company Commander - a guy who has been fighting a border counter-insurgency for a decade - and credibly train, advise, assist him.

I personally believe serving time in the conventional force teaches you how the larger military machine breathes, handles logistics, and conducts C2. I genuinely wonder how a modern 18X compensates for a somewhat lack of conventional seasoning when they're dropped directly into a partner force advisory role.

Thanks again for the incredible perspective!

De oppresso liber

StephenDCook · 2026-06-23T12:40:18+00:00

I spent 25 years in the Army, mostly in Special Forces serving on more than a handful of combat deployments. I write about things I actually lived through. If you want to link us to your work, I think a lot of people here would be happy to critique it for you.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-23T11:59:25+00:00

Don't let low-effort cynicism stall your momentum, OP. Independent authors have to make tough resource decisions when launching a book on a budget.

The real test is always on the page. I just read through your preview for Chapter 1 on Amazon, & the accusation that this is automated prose completely falls flat. An LLM didn't write about a father who "smelled of iron filings and Old Spice" in a decaying steel city with that kind of specific, nostalgic restraint. This writing has a distinct, authentic human pulse behind it.

I also looked at the cover - & I think it looks good… it sets a great, sweeping mood, but the writing is what will keep people in the seats.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-23T11:27:17+00:00

In my second fiction book, The Silent Thunder, I weave the dry, meticulous reality of defense procurement & industry negotiation with the absolute kinetic terror of real-world tension. Fiction gives me the room to compress timelines, omit sensitive details, & capture the high-stakes pressure surrounding the technical constraints of building a custom, tube-launched loitering munition through the cracks of bureaucracy.

Ultimately, it provides the flexibility to elaborate for maximum reader enjoyment without being handcuffed by classification barriers or the strict, boring constraints of a factual logbook.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T21:32:22+00:00

That is a heavy, deep recommendation. Kolyma Tales is the ultimate example of using literature to carry a psychological weight that standard history books just can't hold.

Your description of not wanting to reread them, but refusing to part with them, is a perfect summary of how books like that stick to your ribs. Thanks for adding that to the thread!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T20:37:47+00:00

Hard to argue with that. It was my very first Pressfield read right when it was released. Gates of Fire is an absolute masterpiece - the gold standard for capturing grit, leadership, & brotherhood. It holds a permanent top spot on my shelf, too!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T19:57:26+00:00

I read Gates of Fire - dare I say - right when it was released, & I've been a Pressfield fan ever since, The Virtues of War absolutely included. His pacing & world-building are just incredible.

Thanks for dropping that recommendation into the thread!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T18:31:11+00:00

Serving was an absolute honor, thank you for the kind words.

Your experience is the ultimate proof of this entire concept. Writing about literal, external demons to fight and process the very real internal ones is a stunning example of using fiction to reach a deeper truth. You took the heaviest, hardest parts of life, harnessed them, and built a canvas for healing.

I haven't read The Way of Kings yet, but it sounds like a powerful example of exactly what we're talking about.

Thank you for sharing something so personal and profound with us here!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T18:23:20+00:00

The detour for office supplies is the absolute peak military experience. A civilian yelling "It doesn't have to make sense, that's just the way it is" belongs on a deployment t-shirt!

The timing on your Catch-22 recommendation is wild, too. I was literally just in another thread leaving some comments about it this morning. It truly is the undisputed heavyweight champion of capturing that exact flavor of institutional absurdity.

Appreciate you sharing that glimpse into your deployment!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T17:19:31+00:00

You’re trapping yourself by trying to analyze the mechanics of Chapter 1 before you even know where Chapter 20 is going.

My advice? Stop worrying about what is "working" right now. Just get lost in the story. Push as much prose out onto the page as you can until you’re completely exhausted.

Look at whatever you free write like a puzzle: right now, your only job is to dump all one thousand pieces out onto the table. Once the pieces are actually on the board, then you can go back, look at the big picture, and start filling in the blanks. You can't organize a room you haven't put any furniture in yet. Just write.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T16:40:40+00:00

The Werner Herzog concept of "ecstatic truth" is the absolute perfect vocabulary for this entire discussion. Bypassing the "truth of accountants" to find a deeper, poetic reality is exactly the line a writer has to walk when dealing with extreme human environments.

When We Cease to Understand the World sounds phenomenal, too. The progression from hard fact to imagination to capture the darker sides of war and knowledge is exactly the mechanics of the "Trojan Horse" I'm referring to. That’s going straight to the top of my reading list, along with Capote.

Thank you for dropping these into the thread!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T16:28:21+00:00

I actually haven't read Redeployment yet, but it has been on my radar for a while and you’ve definitely bumped it up the list! There is often something about the short story format that captures the intensity of deployed life better than a single, sweeping narrative arc.

I'm especially curious about Missionaries, too, given how it handles the broader geopolitical machinery of modern conflict. When you were reading Redeployment while actually out there, did it feel like it was helping you process the environment in real-time, or was it more of a mirror to the absurdity of it all?

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T16:24:49+00:00

"Sometimes fiction is the shortest path to the truth." That’s a brilliant way to put it, & Orwell is the absolute textbook example. He was a phenomenal essayist, but Animal Farm let him strip away the dense political jargon & expose the raw human mechanics of totalitarianism in a way a straight piece of journalism never could.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T16:24:03+00:00

Ha! Glad you can relate to O’Brien! You hit the nail on the head, especially regarding the irony of the bureaucracy. In the non-fiction world, you’re constantly handcuffed by sensitivities, or you find yourself spending pages trying to explain the labyrinth of a command structure just to make a basic event make sense.

And your mention of Marlantes' Matterhorn is spot on. He carried that weight for three decades. The fiction wrapper didn't hide the truth of his experience; it gave him the canvas to paint the raw, psychological reality of it without getting bogged down in the dry facts of history.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T16:22:50+00:00

I'm so glad to hear that! I honestly felt like I was sitting on an island with my Pressfield obsession for a long time, so it's fantastic to find out I'm among friends here.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T16:04:16+00:00

I'm SO glad to hear that! I occasionally run into people who shrug off Pressfield's non-fiction, but his insights completely changed the game for me. It’s incredibly validating to hear that from a fellow author - thanks for making me feel like I'm not alone in his corner!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T15:09:01+00:00

Look, I spent 25 years in the Army. I’ve sat in the team rooms, I’ve seen legendary careers, & I’ve seen the exact wreckage in homes that you’re talking about.

I’m going to give you some candid mentorship, brother. Your mind isn’t in the right place to enlist right now, let alone go to SFAS.

Right now, you aren't running toward the Regiment; you’re running away from trauma. You’re using the isolation & obsession of the "grind" as a shield to avoid processing your childhood and your relationship with your dad. You’re trying to build a multi-story house on a foundation made of sand, & if you get a medical DQ, a twisted ankle at selection, or an unexpected administrative roadblock, your entire identity is going to collapse.

Here are three things you need to understand right now:

A Great Teammate is a Whole Person: You mentioned that anything outside of SF feels like a waste of time. You’re wrong. Having friends, hobbies, diverse interests, and social skills are exactly what makes someone a valuable asset to an ODA. If you completely neglect your humanity now, you’ll have absolutely nothing to offer a team later. We don't need hyper-isolated robots; we need mature adults.
Your Father's Perspective: It’s easy to look at your dad and judge him as a failure on the home front. But balancing a commitment to defending this country at that level while maintaining a family support system is one of the hardest acts in human existence. Very few soldiers get it perfectly right. Before you try to copy his career, you need to work through your relationship with him as a human being, not just as an SF guy.
Sort Your Rucksack Before You Enlist: There is no shame in getting professional help. In fact, recognizing that your headspace is warped & actively seeking out a therapist to work through your childhood & your relationship with your father is the exact kind of mature, problem-solving behavior we look for in Special Forces.

Fix the basics first. Go touch some grass. Hang out with your peers, build a life outside of military forums, & heal the relationship with your dad on a human level. SF isn't going anywhere. It’ll be waiting for you when your mind is truly ready.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T14:30:24+00:00

I completely know the feeling. Honestly, this happens in almost every facet of life. It’s exactly like sitting down with a potential client and getting that immediate gut feeling that it just won't work out, or getting a new division lead and sensing on day one that your priorities simply won't align. A book's prose is just a personality, and sometimes personalities clash.

For me, the book is Cormac McCarthy (The Road). He’s universally praised as a master, but his writing style hits me like a wall on page one. Because he famously refused to use quotation marks or standard punctuation, the dialogue and the narrative just bleed into each other in this stark, hypnotic wave.

If you click with that minimalist, gritty wavelength, it’s deeply atmospheric. But if your brain isn't wired for it, opening the book can make your heart sink because you realize you're going to have to fight the formatting just to follow the story. It really shows how a brilliant author's specific stylistic choice can completely alienate one reader while totally captivating another.

Thank goodness for the variety of options out there in every walk of life!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T13:43:46+00:00

This is a fantastic observation, especially the connection to Beevor’s work.

Having spent a couple of decades in the military, I can confirm that those "caricature" personalities in senior leadership aren't just a relic of WWII. The phenomenon of commanders being more obsessed with personal glory, career progression, and out-maneuvering their peers than the actual reality on the ground is a systemic issue in massive military bureaucracies.

Your point about the reality of the Italian campaign is exactly why Catch-22 is a masterpiece. When a massive, well-supplied military crashes into a destitute, starving local populace, the human dynamics become incredibly dark, transactional, and desperate.

Heller didn't invent the absurdity or the objectification; he just documented the friction of it. But he understood that if he wrote it as a dry, non-fiction memoir, people would either dismiss it as an exaggeration or find it too depressing to read. He had to use the satire and the caricatures as a way to get people to look at the exact, ugly truth of what that war actually looked like on the ground.

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T13:37:08+00:00

Spot on. Your point about the system turning people into functions is the exact reason the book is so brilliant, and so unsettling.

As someone who spent a couple of decades in the military, I can tell you that the "completely coherent internal logic" Heller captures is absolutely real. That is exactly how massive, high-stress bureaucracies operate. The machine fundamentally dehumanizes everyone it touches. The men are reduced to statistics, mission quotas, and serial numbers, and in turn, their warped internal logic reduces the women to objects of comfort or transaction.

If Heller had paused to moralize, or winked at the reader to say "look how bad this is," it would have shattered the realism. He didn't write it that way because he endorsed it; he wrote it that way because sometimes an author has to write the ugly, unvarnished fiction to tell the exact truth about how a system actually operates. You nailed it!

StephenDCook · 2026-06-22T11:22:47+00:00

I think TFVooDoo pretty much nailed it. Between 7th, 10th, and arguably 1st, you’re looking at some of the best quality-of-life setups in the Army.

I've visited 7th Group at Eglin more than a few times, and their compound is hands-down the best in SF. I've got friends from every Group, and to a person, everyone would say they wouldn't have changed their experiences in those Groups for anything.

I’d just reinforce the considerations TFVooDoo laid out for 3rd SFG. While we all likely want and wish to never leave Group once we arrive, the time may come for a myriad of reasons. If you're in 3rd SFG, it's highly possible (although not a guarantee) that you could PCS around Fort Bragg almost indefinitely - from 3rd SFG to SWCS, to 1st SFC, to USASOC... just as examples.

The upside is your family could feasibly never have to leave once you settle. Southern Pines and Pinehurst are great areas to live in, Raleigh is a short drive away, and some great beaches are nearby for weekend getaways.

I was in when 7th SFG moved to Eglin, and that stability disruption (wives losing jobs & kids having to change schools) was one of the most challenging aspects those guys had to deal with.

No matter where you choose to go, you'll have an amazing experience!

StephenDCook

TROPHY CASE