The Fine Art of Camouflage

pebd

 PEBD 

six digits

2024 - 1988  = 36

Pay Entry Base Date (PEBD) is the date that denotes how much of your service is creditable towards longevity for pay purposes.

On a day, a very long time ago, I had no idea that six numbers strung together would be such a significant deal in my life. But now as an adult, having lived through decades of changes, wars, victories, grief, and joy. The number means everything. The number brings me closer to freedom and security and at the time close to loss and unknown.

I share this date with my daughter twenty years later she received her own PEBD. 

The Six Triple Eight | Official Trailer | Netflix

watch

What an inspiring video from a Green Beret in Vietnam that found hope, reason, and passion in the wilderness focusing on Grizzly Bears.

 Grizzly Country Movie

By Peak Design  and Ben Moon  #grizzlycountryfilm

Upcoming Screenings:
Wasatch Mountain Film Festival (Apr. 4)
Cape Town Adventure Film Festival (Apr. 11)
International Wildlife Film Festival (Apr. 13-19)
Banff Film Festival World Tour (various dates/locations)

Wild Scenic Film Festival World Tour (various dates/locations)


Take Action:
Save The Yellowstone Grizzly
Round River Conservation Studies
These are no the grizzly bears we used to watch at the dump with my grandparents in Tawas and Northern Michigan.

Find a mission. Keep your mind on it. Drink in the wilderness and protect it.
After serving in the Vietnam War, author and naturalist Doug Peacock spent years alone in the Wyoming and Montana wilderness observing grizzly bears. His time in the wild changed the course of his life. With the protection of Yellowstone grizzlies now under threat, Peacock reflects on the importance of habitat and why he continues to fight for wild causes.

First book of the deployment ... The Last Punisher by Kevin Lacz

  Excerpt:
“GET YOUR S**T! All hands to the roof of Shark House!” Marc Lee’s breathless bark snapped me out of sleep.

I didn’t think as I jolted off my cot, stuck my bare feet in my Oakley boots, and grabbed my web gear, machine gun, helmet, and night-vision goggles (NVGs). I ran hot on Marc’s heels, in nothing but a pair of PT shorts and some assault gear, as we raced the hundred yards to the roof like sharks toward blood in the water.

Impending violence permeated the Euphrates’s musty breeze.

“Muj swimmers trying to attack Blue Diamond,” Marc called over his shoulder as we hit the ground-floor entrance to the house. Camp Blue Diamond was the Marine base across the river to our east. We bounded up the stairs, untied boot laces whipping our bare shins. On the roof, we joined about twenty other Teamguys, most of us in PT shorts and bare chested, the unofficial uniform for middle-of-the-night, just-out-of-your-rack muj hunting. I saw an occasional T-shirt and had to stifle a chuckle when I noticed Guy, one of our officers, and his perfect uniform. A hodgepodge of support guys intermixed among us. When Marc said all hands, he had meant all hands. Everybody wanted to get his war on.

No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife.

Can I Just say how much I loved this book?
I was never an Infantry Wife - but being around the military for 25+ years, I get this book. I guarantee you will relate to the references about drinking the kool aid, Longaberger Parties, deployment situations and military life. I do not yet know Angela Ricketts - but I am sure am proud of her for writing this book.

I am hoping I can get up to the Tatter Cover on July 29th to see her in person  Event - LoDo




From the Publisher

Raised as an Army brat, Angie Ricketts thought she knew what she was in for when she eloped with Jack—then an infantry lieutenant—on the eve of his deployment to Somalia. Since that time, Jack, now a colonel, has been deployed eight times, serving four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Ricketts, has lived every one of those deployments intimately—distant enough to survive the years spent apart from her husband, but close enough to share a common purpose and a lifestyle they both love. With humor, candor, and a brazen attitude, Ricketts pulls back the curtain on a subculture many readers know, but few ever will experience. Counter to the dramatized snap shot seen on Lifetime’s Army Wives, Ricketts digs into the personalities and posturing that officers’ wives must survive daily—whether navigating a social event on post, suffering through a husband’s prolonged deployment or reacting to a close friend’s death in combat. At its core, No Man’s War is a story of sisterhood and survival.



Excerpt:
I’m a fresh start girl. Today is Day One. Today we start counting down the days, 455 to go. I walk into the bathroom and stare at his sink with his few ‘personal hygiene’ things neatly lined up. If I had to look at that tube of deodorant for fifteen months, pick it up to dust under it, I would surely lose my mind. No. My way is better. Fresh. I feel limp. Everything is gray. I decide to lie down before I start my ritual. The bed smells like him and it does not comfort me. I want that smell gone. It’s going to be fifteen months and I won’t be one of those women sleeping with some old t-shirt, clinging to his long faded scent. Part of my deployment ritual is to remove his daily things right away. It’s easier for me. I compartmentalize his crap, and I compartmentalize my emotions. That ugly faux leather recliner of his. I want this done before the kids return, so I drag it out to the garage. It does not come willingly; it fights me the whole way. It slams one of my toes, bringing a new round of tears and anger to my face. The chair refuses to comply, but I won’t let it stop me. Eventually it ends in the garage, pissed at me and defeated, but satisfied at having the last word by leaving a huge gouge in the new hardwood floors. That will be my one constant reminder of this day for the next fifteen months.

waffle

Admittedly, I wore my waffle shirt to work today. I walked early this morning at Garden of the Gods and packed clothes to change ,but once I got to work I had no desire to change.




The Level II Shirt is long sleeved with thumb holes and features a mid-chest zipper that closes to convert to a mock turtleneck. The neck also features a throat protection flap. The base of the zipper is reinforced with nylon webbing and for additional insulation the back of the shirt features a contoured long tail. The drawers feature an elastic waistband and access fly.

When Women Come Marching Home

Service: When WOMEN Come Marching Home 3 minute promo from Rock Stotter on Vimeo.

MAT to mat

Getting back on the MAT.
Last week I left the MAT and one of the most important things I know I needed to do
is get back on to my yoga mat. I got home Friday morning and gazed at the schedule online.
I wanted to go but I was hesitant.
I was ready but not ready.
On Monday morning I checked in for class and found my self situated in the studio.
I felt nervously comfortable. The familiarity of the practice felt great.
But I was wobbly and my knee was sneaking forward in front of the other.
I completely forgot the how to do side twist but the instructor was gracious and loving.
....
no judging as much as I was judging myself no one in the room was judging me.
After class I confessed out loud that this is was my first guided practice in 9 months.
I know this is where I belong and more importantly this is where I find peace.
The other practices this week have been slightly less shakey but the shake is still there.
Thank goodness child pose is always available and the welcoming atmosphere of peace and love.
Glad to be back on the mat.

Bow to Nobody