Today is Veterans’ Day, originally Armistice Day to celebrate the end of The Great War, World War I, the war that to tis day still greatly shapes out world. First let me salute those men and women who have served and are serving in our nation’s armed forces. Even in peacetime it is a tough job and our states of constant war makes it even more so.

Some of you may know that I briefly served in the United States Navy; from 1979 until early 1982. If you know anything about naval enlistments you’ll see that my term of service is odd.

I was not a good sailor. I had not yet achieved a level of responsibility that would allow me to succeed in the military. Like I have already said it is a tough job, even during a period of peace and quiet, and I was not at all ready for that. So in early 1982 the Navy instituted ‘Operation Upgrade’ to allow less that stellar sailor to leave before the end of enlistment and that offer was extended to me.

I do not regret my service. I made good friends, I saw a chunk of the world, and I got a first hand look at people, both my fellow sailors and civilians around the world, that opened my eyes of the incredible diversity of the human race.

The novel that landed an offer of representation in y email box is a military SF adventure and certainly my military background, however scant it is, informed that piece. I have a lot more military SF to write. I have friends that did the full twenty years and achieved retirement and though it was a career path that did not work out for me, I have the utmost respect for those who solider on and carry the weight I could not.