The Post 911 GI Bill is Incredibly Generous!

Just did a TAP class talking about the benefits.  Wow.  Staggeringly generous of the American people and it has only gotten better over time.  I recommend that all veterans who have this benefit ensure they use it at the soonest.

Dr. King and Malcolm X - The Best America Had to Offer

Today is Dr. King's birthday.  What an amazing American who personified public service, without ever being paid by taxpayer money.  Malcolm X doesn't get the same praise, but he is the Yin to Dr. King's Yang and the two were a team despite disagreements on methodology.

Both cared deeply about our flawed nation.  Both sacrificed everything for it.  Not just their lives, but also their lives.  Martin and Malcolm were two of the very finest Americans to ever live.

Both were murdered by Americans.  And both were treated as the enemy by the American government's intelligence/surveillance industry despite the wishes of political figures like John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.  And as often happens when great men who challenge power and corruption are no more, lesser men in government service pervert and distort and attempt to destroy their message.

Dr. King and Malcolm X, and their families, deserve an incredible debt of gratitude from the American people for their service to our nation.

And we have the responsibility to not piss all their sacrifices and gains away.  Particularly those of us paid to be public servants.

Brandon Bryant, Drone Star, a Liar and a Plagiarist

Outright lies, and the lies that come from stealing the words of another and pawning them off as your own.  When it comes to dishonesty, Brandon Bryant has it all.  He plagiarizes comic books as part of his lofty, and contradictory, proclamations to the public.

To see the depth of his self described "imagination" take a look at this lie he told about the FBI first calling him.  See if you can spot the lie about who, he claims, the FBI told him was targeting him.

He will say anything for five minutes of fame.  It seems Tonje Hessen Schei has helped Brandon Bryant, the former Predator sensor operator, find his calling... saying anything the script tells him to say regardless of truth.

PickYourBattles.Net Coming to an End - Standby for Decommissioning

This is the final year, the final few months actually, of this eight year blog.  Soon I will leave public service and this avenue of discussion will accordingly be decommissioned.

I am very much looking forward to gardening and raising honeybees and enjoying the nation rather than battling to protect it from threatening ideas and un-American values.

It will be great to finally go home.

Brandon Bryant, Thy Foul Throat

The four minute video above shows a clear lie told by Brandon Bryant, as he changed his story for a foreign audience.

And here is a guest post I wrote for the blog, This Ain't Hell, about Brandon the Drone Deceiver.

It sure would be nice if media, and journalists like Jeremy Scahill, and lawyers like Jesslyn Radack were to refuse to ally themselves with liars just to push a narrative.  I can't believe they think that is a good idea.

Brandon Bryant By Day - "Malleable Man" by Night

I made the video above after many hours of watching eye-gouging videos of Brandon Bryant running his mouth.  Using his own words, "Brandon Bryant - Say Anything" shows that the Senior Airman who left the drone program is willing to say anything for a bit of daddy love and some praise.  He reads his lines like a champ, but his director is obviously an idiot since his claims are a case study in contradiction.

I have had an interest in Brandon's role in the very important drone discussion, for quite some time now since I met him online.  I'm sure I saw him at work back in the day, but I had no reason to interact with him so we do not know each other personally, although we know many mutual people.  I have blogged about his media appearances several times over the years and, until today, we were Facebook friends.  I had to cut him off.  After many online conversations over the years and after reading his public professions, I have come to the conclusion that several others offered me about him years ago.  He's dishonest and not to be trusted.  He's a con man and a fraud.

The video above doesn't get into the most embarrassing chunks that flow from Brandon's sewer.  I didn't post clips that show that Brandon is more than willing to pretend that he's an economist, a political philosopher, a psychologist, and of course, an expert on warfare despite leaving the drone program after only five years and despite his public profession that drones can't be shot down (except by China).  Oops.  It is truly amazing what this guy will say.

But to be fair, he did a great deal in the drone program other than simply violate his oath to defend the Constitution.  He flew more than 6000 hours in less than five years.  That is a STAGGERING amount of time and I feel bad for him going through that.  Nobody should have to live like that.  When he says he spent time watching others live their lives, while he had no life of his own, he was telling the truth.  He was used and abused and it's unfortunate.

But I have a feeling he's being used and abused right now by those who are able to spot a guy with flexible morals and a willingness to say anything.  I'm talking about foreign activists and film makers like Tonje Hessen Schei, the creator of the new documentary, Drone, which stars Brandon Bryant.  I am sure a person in her position is grateful to have an actor who gladly takes lines and spits them out to improve the script.  It's too bad, though, that after working with Brandon for more than a year, and creating the Drone documentary, she still refers to Brandon as a pilot.  She has to know he was not a pilot, so continuously labeling him one must be a conscious decision.  Better for selling tickets I suppose, but it undercuts the credibility of her film.  As does, of course, Brandon's participation in it.

Homeless despite having a generous GI Bill and a state school in your hometown where your mother lives?  Sure why not.  Suffering from PTSD from the moral injury sustained by violating your oath?  Yes, please.  Did nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever and only started an ever evolving need to speak "truth" once out of the military?  CUT!  That's not going to sell, let's take that one from the top.  AND ACTION!

As to "my case" -- my so-called case is simply one of doing my job professionally, as I swore to do and as Brandon admits he did not.  That's hardly the stuff for headlines or movies.

But one of the many unfortunate things about over-classification and the shadows that come from secret dealings, is that journalists and media and "whistle blower" lawyers in the accountability field don't have a lot to work with.  It's supply and demand.  That's unfortunate for credibility, as Ms. Jessica Radack is no doubt figuring out with her motley group (consisting of a charlatan that no lawyer would ever want to take the stand, and an admitted bath-salt-consuming coke head, along with a fuckin' computer guy who apparently pisses himself because somebody handed him a headset while deployed, in a military that he voluntarily joined, and who now claims PTSD and nightmares from hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del one too many times).  That's the gaggle being trotted out to the public in this discussion?  It's too bad Ms. Radack hasn't at least pointed out to Brandon that the part of the Constitution he claims that he was told he was violating while he was doing it, was Article Three, Section Three.  Not Section Two as he has been rehearsing for his performances.

It saddens me to see Jessica Radack falling for this nonsense and undercutting her track record by doing so.  As political scientist, C. Fred Alford, said of whistleblowers in an article written about her courageous service:

The great relief is that whistleblowers aren't like the vast majority of us, says Alford, the political scientist. For him, Radack's story is less about a world turned upside down by 9/11 than about what strange creatures whistleblowers necessarily are.

"STRANGE DOESN'T have to mean wearing funny shoes," Alford says. "It can just mean being a true believer. A real cynic isn't going to blow the whistle. A real conformist isn't going to blow the whistle. And a real radical probably won't be in a position to do it. It takes someone who believes in the system far more than the system ever believes in itself."

It should be obvious.  But apparently any disgruntled employee with an axe to grind can seek the spotlight and be dubbed a whistle blower these days.  I suppose that's why Ms. Radack now finds herself offering up fraud-and-pony shows when she used to represent public servants serving the American people (and still does, so long as she represents Edward Snowden).  But to represent Brandon Bryant and his megalomaniacal crusade to falsely present himself in the same light?  It's really sad.

What an embarrassment.  Frauds, charlatans, and bath-salt-bathers pass as whistle blowers these days and greatly damage the credibility of those like Ms. Radack in the process. 

Brandon Bryant is not in this discussion for truth or for principle.  He is a wannabe celebrity and aspiring super hero.  He loves comic books.  He loves acting.  As the video above shows, he thirsts for it.  But if Brandon were to be a super hero, he would be Malleable Man.  A person with a super power allowing him to bend and shift and distort and be shaped by any person, with the exception of his super villain and arch-nemesis that goes by the name of Truth.  Truth, apparently, can't touch Malleable Man.

It's all fun and games until Malleable Man, twisted and shaped by foreign interests, starts releasing secrets to other countries to give them critical information about an American military technology that Malleable Man himself says is not good or bad but depends on how it is used (when he's not calling that same technology cowardly and bad like all distance warfare).  When it comes to degrading the security of America, it ceases to be a comic book and becomes something quite different.  His narrative has shifted and it's not hard to figure out why.  In the beginning he positioned himself as "speaking out" because leadership abused his community of drone operators and he wanted people to understand they were human beings.  When he didn't get the response he had hoped for, his message shifted to win a different audience.  Enter all the many contradictions he spouts interspersed with Sun Tzu and other quotes he doesn't understand.

It's funny to see a mostly foreign collection praise and dote on a guy that claims he knowingly violated the law, and it was interesting to see Tonje back up her little star with the dubious excuse of "just following orders."  What is the point of her documentary again?  Too bad she wasn't around in the 1940s to make a documentary about the German SS.  So let this documentary be a lesson to all you drone operators out there!  Do your job poorly, violate whatever laws you want, violate your oath of office that you swore to uphold before God, and then when your commitment is conveniently over, simply say you did so and be welcomed with open arms by those from foreign countries!  Well, of course, if you agree to help them with a narrative.  Yeah, that should help with accountability.  Nice going, Tonje.

There is a discussion that should be had on the topic.  But the dishonest, unprincipled, and opportunistic do not further that discussion.

You are an embarrassment to your nation, Brandon Bryant, and don't think your new friends are stupid.  Once they are done with you, which should be just about any day now, they will lose interest.  And where will you be then?  Not only did you violate the Constitution while you were in, you have degraded an important conversation on the outside for a bit of praise.

At any rate, just remember your comic book alter ego is called Malleable Man, not "SrA America."  You have a hat in your hand, not a shield.  You don't have an "A" on your chest, you have a "T" and that stands for treason.  Not treason for speaking out, no not at all.  Treason because you violated your oath and flew a mission to make war on America, and now you seek to lie on the outside to capitalize on it.  But I know, I know.  I'm not being compassionate.  I should realize that it's tough when you're a "homeless" "disabled veteran" with a GI Bill who can travel the world on a speaking tour and do back flips on command.

Fraud and fiction...

Media Taken for a Drone Ride - Cenk Interviews Brandon Bryant

Brandon Bryant back in the media, now promoting his foreign film.  He's being called a whistle blower and even went so far as to lie about a whistle he blew, when asked the question directly, after a cute semantic maneuver.  And when asked if he has PTSD he said, "I've been diagnosed with it, yes" which is all but an admission that he knows he doesn't truly have PTSD.  These embellishments and falsities are sure to help bolster the hype of the flick.  But what I found the most fascinating about this interview was:

1.  Brandon Bryant admits that he flew a mission with the unconstitutional goal of assassinating an American citizen, and did so for ten months before his contract was up and he left the drone program six months before the American target and his son were killed.  He admitted, as was discussed previously on the Young Turks, to flying a mission with the intent of breaking the law.

2.  Brandon, despite knowing better, says, "We have no men with nobility or honor in our system anymore" after admitting he had no issue with flying that mission with the goal of violating the rights of another person.  For ten months.  Somehow he still feels entitled to some kind of moral high horse now that his term of enlistment has been completed and he finds himself on the outside.

3.  Tonje, the documentary producer, says that we need accountability in the drone program.  Yet the star of her documentary, sitting to her left, is a guy who just admitted doing the things she said were bad and required accountability.  And he did them until his contract was up and he was honorably discharged.

4.  Cenk thanks Brandon for his "courage" on behalf of Americans who are concerned about this issue (while Brandon basks in the praise) and says he shouldn't feel bad about what he's done, because he does in fact feel bad (so that means Brandon is a decent person).  Cenk fails to expound on this claimed courage having apparently bought Brandon's claim of PTSD and "moral injury."

I couldn't help but imagine Cenk interviewing Goebbels after his military contract came to an end, with Goebbels on the Young Turks explaining all the bad things he did and how he has PTSD from "moral injury"while basking in Cenk's praise and claims of his courage for speaking about things already known to the world.  Would Cenk give Goebbels the same absolution in exchange for being on his show?

Is it really good for accountability when the "ooops" excuse (which Brandon hypocritically blasts the President for) works for those who actually carry out unlawful orders?

Is the media going to call him out when he makes false claims like, for example, that he blew the whistle on the unconstitutional mission to assassinate Awlaki?  I mean, prior to Brandon ever mentioning that mission in the media, there was a federal court case challenging the legality of Awlaki being hunted for assassination, and the Secretary of Defense himself admitted to the assassination on 60 Minutes.  So how did Brandon blow a whistle again?  Oh well.  If you can't trust the word of a guy who admits to flying missions to break the law, not objecting, and later claiming PTSD and "moral injury" who can you trust?

The only whistle being blown here is the "promote this film" whistle.  The media is being taken for a ride by a charlatan.  And they should know better.

Credit Where Credit is Due - Democracy Can Work

When it comes to America and public service, it's important to acknowledge strengths along with weaknesses, and successes along with failures.  Sometimes that is difficult to do when reality doesn't always or ever seem to be concerned with such balance.

But there is a great success to be reported, concerning an injustice that has been overturned, thanks to several individuals from several positions in our democracy.  First is Tony Carr, who did a fantastic job leveraging the fourth estate to highlight the issue and who used advocacy to engage the legislative branch of government.  Carr utilized congressional levers of power and fortunately several congressional representatives faithfully exercised their oversight responsibilities to share the will of the people with at least one member of our executive branch.  And these efforts did not fall on deaf ears as our Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh, did not hesitate to find out the facts and ensure the issue was remedied.

What a success story.  There is a lot of win here for America.  This is the stuff of democracy and it's a pleasure to see the system ultimately work and recover and correct other failures.  Well done gentlemen.

For those interested in the details of this proud moment, take a look at JQP's coverage of it on his blog where the whole process began.

Contract Breaking Fighter Pilot, Justin Pavoni, Still Trying to Preach Morality

Former Air Force Captain Justin Pavoni is back in the media.  Last year he and his wife, Jessica Pavoni, launched a website and now have a podcast.  Sadly, Dr. Ron Paul is continuing to buy into Pavoni's immoral nonsense as the video above shows.

Now that Dr. Ron Paul is out of office, I can express my respect for him -- and I have criticized those who were unethical in showing their support for him while he was a politician.  I'm a huge fan of Dr. Ron Paul.  He's not right all the time, he's just right the vast majority of the time.  Dr. Paul, in my view, is one of the best Americans to ever serve in government.  But he's not always right, and he's off by lending his support to Pavoni, just as he's been consistently wrong about a declaration of war being constitutionally required for combat operations, which is a view adopted by his two contract-breaking star-struck acolytes.  So now back to Justin and Jessica Pavoni...

I criticized Justin Pavoni years ago when he was becoming an amateur media darling and began propping up his immorality as a mantle of ethics.  One fighter pilot blogger also briefly discussed Justin and his wife Jessica, also a former Air Force pilot who flew the U-28, both breaking their contracts with the American people.  I had some personal discussions with Justin at that time, but he wasn't convinced by my argument that what he was doing, backing out on a voluntary contact with the American people to their great financial detriment, was immoral.  Or he simply didn't care, choosing himself over his obligations.  I invited him to debate me on this blog and he declined.

Justin Pavoni, a guy who enjoyed a taxpayer funded college education (what Pavoni calls "free" education) at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) and who then took millions more in taxpayer money in order to train to become an F-15E fighter pilot, simply decided that he personally didn't think war was moral anymore.  Well, that's what he claimed at the time in order to get out of his contract.  He pretended that he was a "conscientious objector" to use, as Pavoni called it in the video above, a "loophole" to break his contract with the American people.  In reality, he had refused to deploy while his so-called "conscientious objector" application was going through the wickets.  Something he made clear on a prior Ron Paul interview that seems to no longer be available.

I knew years ago that Justin wasn't an actual conscientious objector and the video above supports that as it shows Justin talking of a non-existent "selective objector" status.  Likewise, this video shows that his wife Jessica, another Air Force pilot who went to USAFA and who also broke her contract with the American people after milking them for a great amount of money, was also only interested in objections to "foreign policy" rather than some moral objection to war itself.  They were not conscientious objectors and they knew that.  They simply wanted to not only deliver politics by other means, but they also wanted to play the part of politician themselves directing their own action according to their own desires rather than the desire of their nation in their roles as public servants.  Justin and Jessica wanted to become a nation unto themselves with money taken from others...

As it turns out, the Air Force found that neither Justin nor his wife, who commissioned as military officers after the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, were conscientious objectors and they were dismissed on other grounds during a time when the Air Force was drawing down.

Images from the video, The Philosophy of Liberty

Justin and Jessica Pavoni defrauded the American people.  An education at the U.S. Air Force Academy costs the American taxpayer around $416,000.  It costs the American people roughly 2.6 million to train a brand new fighter pilot (another estimate says six million) and one million to train a non-fighter pilot like Jessica Pavoni.  As a result, the American people require a contract and term of service to ensure their investment is not squandered.  Jessica and Justin, however, misrepresented themselves as conscientious objectors and broke their contracts, thieving roughly four to seven million dollars from the American people who invested in them, and who provided them a world class education in which to ponder and prepare for war and their profession at a military academy, and who required them to take an oath to show their fidelity.  Instead, the two Air Force Academy graduates refused to do as they promised the American people because they decided they simply did not agree with the lawful commands of those same people who paid them.

That is a decidedly immoral action.  And yet they have decided to voice their immorality as though they enjoy some moral high ground, and are working with others including yet another USAFA graduate F-15E pilot from Justin Pavoni's squadron who also applied for separation as a conscientious objector (pro tip: one sure way to tell if somebody is not a conscientious objector....see if they voluntarily chose to go to a military academy -- works every time).  Justin and Jessica now offer their support to others in the military who might also want to break their contracts, encouraging them to "quit" despite any, in Justin's words, "so called 'commitment.'"

Or as Jessica Pavoni, who uses the handle AnarchoMama, stated recently on Reddit, there are "anarchists" who want to help others who no longer want to serve in the military.  Just don't want to serve anymore despite their contracts with the American people, meh.

The Pavonis' cavalier attitude might be summed up with the statement, "Whatever, just never thought about war at my premiere military college.  Whatdya gonna do?  Thanks for the millions!"

As a relevant aside, how in the holy hell is our United States Air Force Academy recruiting and commissioning such people?  Is the training and education there completely and utterly worthless?  There really should be an investigation on this topic.  If this USAFA lack of quality control trend continues, our ability to project air power will be dismantled from within and at great taxpayer expense.  Our Air Force Academy is failing in the character department and just the story of these three former pilots alone demonstrates that tens of millions of dollars in training is being squandered and justified with "meh, changed my mind."

The Pavonis are immoral people.  And they should have been dishonorably discharged and spent time in prison for their conduct.  Whether it's a banker, a corrupt politician, or a self serving military officer who fraudulently steals millions of dollars from the American people, fraud and theft should be punished.

I would no doubt agree with the Pavonis on a great many of their statements but the reality is they have no credibility on the subject matter.  Foreign policy is not the issue.  The issue is contracts, voluntary obligations, and keeping your word.  In short, it's an issue of integrity.  The Pavonis are the last people who should be talking about morality or government action.  Government, at its core, is a relationship between people and it requires that individuals keep their word in voluntary arrangements.

Imagine a plumber who voluntarily agrees to take millions of dollars of another person's money in order to learn how to effectively fix a very complicated toilet system, in an agreement to fix that system, who then after that training just decides he thinks the shit business is immoral (immoral, boiled down, equals something that a person simply does not like).  And so imagine this plumber quit his job without refunding the millions spent to train him after years of a world class education in plumbing that his employer funded, after signing a contract and raising his hand and swearing to complete the job without mental reservation or purpose of evasion.  Now imagine that same plumber, when it came time to grab the plunger, just decided to up and quit.

Justin and Jessica, you two volunteered to enter the shit business and you both signed up to flush it on demand by those who paid and invested in you.  There is absolutely no excuse for you not knowing that as adults, after four years at a military academy, prior to you both voluntarily contracting with others and taking their money.

You couldn't possibly have graduated the Air Force Academy thinking the war business would be roses.

You two lack credibility.  And Jessica's view of a "logical consistent definition of philosophy" is something to be challenged as her idiotic appeal to Rothbard and his quack-intellectual concept of contracts, where contracts can be broken and a person's voluntary agreement becomes not enforceable, falls flat.  The attempt to dress up simple immorality and lack of integrity with the thin veneer of intellectual justification is the stuff of mental reservation and purpose of evasion.  It's not convincing.

Let's not kid ourselves about what really happened here.  You two were living apart because you both took taxpayer money to go to USAFA and you both volunteered to become pilots, and you both volunteered to go to war when called, and you both lived apart because you chose different airframes.  Got it.  Public service is tough.  But those were your decisions and your fabricated "philosophy" to rectify your regretted life choices at the great financial expense of the American taxpayer does not change that.

Faithful public service is hard.  Doing what others tell you to do, especially when you disagree with those you work for and who pay your bills, can be a real challenge.  I understand not agreeing with the American people when they send you off to certain wars.  I was vehemently against the idiotic invasion of Iraq from the very beginning and yet I was there on night one and many times thereafter.  I went because it was lawfully authorized and so I faithfully used my millions of dollars of training to defend eighteen year olds with rifles who did not have the benefit of four entire years of study to think about their future actions and warfare at a military academy nestled in the mountains.  Those kids simply went to a lawful war when called to do so, and my training was used to protect them, disastrous as that war predictably has been.  Had Iraq been unlawful, I would have refused.  But it was not, and I had an obligation to the American people as a public servant.  Despite disagreeing with my employers.

You two did not act from a moral position.  And for the love of God please stop using terms like "first principle."  Neither of you have any idea of the terms you throw around.  You pretend to not even have a grasp of what voluntary means in order to rationalize your breach of contract.  You are frauds who took from others, made a voluntary contract with them, and then misrepresented yourselves and broke that contract while considering your misrepresentation some kind of clever "loophole" like a corrupt politician might do; wasting taxpayer money and the time of others in the service with your lame application as conscientious objectors when you yourselves admit that you are not.  And yet you two are comfortable sounding off like you're somehow champions of morality while you try to dress up your mental reservations and purposes of evasion with pseudo-scholastic mumbo jumbo.  You two have no shame.

Two military academy college graduates who, between the both of them, could not figure out the most basic function of the military and what they were being paid to do.  And unbelievably, one being the son of a fighter pilot.  But somehow that whole military thing just blindsided them.

Justin and Jessica, your little scheme worked.  Your fraud was a success.  Now please quietly go away and stop pretending you have a moral position.  And Justin, if you do decide to go back to school as your wife says you're considering, do enjoy those generous GI Bill taxpayer benefits.  But also try to pay attention in class this time.  Depending on your area of study, you may be presented concepts that are even more challenging than the basic one that you failed to grasp as an undergraduate.  You know, the concept that the military exists to take life and destroy property as an extension of politics decided by civilian politicians who you may personally disagree with.  That was a basic concept your four years at the United States Air Force Academy should have taught you.  It was really simple, but somehow you weren't able to wrap your "conscience" around it.  So please, please, do try to pay attention the next time you find yourself in a classroom.

Jessica and Justin have been invited to debate me on this matter and Jessica said they will "think about it."  I let them know that what I would like to debate with them is not their actions, but rather their position that military officers should follow their own personal morality and consciences while in public service.  That is a topic that would be useful to explore.  Here's my position.  If you are of the opinion that public servants should follow their own personal morality, rather than the law, then you welcome the assassination of American citizens, torture of Muslims, and every other unlawful action that a military member may personally feel is right or justified.  The standard is not, and cannot be, "total freedom to act on one’s conscience" while in public service.  The law, which is public morality distilled into black and white, must be the one and only standard.  Sadly, Justin Pavoni said they will not debate me unless I delete my blog posts, despite the fact they have been repeatedly invited to correct or debate me here on this blog and regardless of the fact that they could correct those "issues" during a live debate.

The fact that they wish to make claims and not actually debate or discuss them, only crystallizes the obvious conclusion that they are two immoral and dishonest people who lack integrity and credibility and are not interested in the truth.  If they truly thought I was unfair or wrong in my assessments or facts, as they have asserted without evidence, they would show up to correct those facts.  It is what it is.

At any rate, for a better discussion on the role of the military and the difference between personal and public morality and the obligations of those in the military to obey the law while refusing unlawful orders, please checkout this discussion below that I had with a couple of Ron Paul supporters and one anarchist on alternative media.  I've asked these two if they would be interested in moderating a debate between the Pavonis and myself, in the extremely unlikely chance the Pavonis grow a backbone and want to come out of the deceptive shadows and debate me.

Morale Ain't Dead Yet & George Knew That Would Be the Case

My last performance report ever.  Very well played!  It's a positive sign that some morale and humor was able to be squeaked out of a time consuming and seemingly pointless exercise in drudgery.  This is an indication of a healthy work environment, and I'm sure Robin Olds would agree.  I just wish that I would have seen the hidden Easter Egg without having to be told about it.  But I will admit that I'm not a smart man and have never been good with word puzzles.  Or even finding the hidden coins in Super Mario Brothers.

This now ranks as my second favorite Officer Performance Report (OPR) in all of my twenty years.  My favorite was a referral performance report for not obeying an unlawful order to violate our Constitution.  So while this one is admittedly a distant second, it's still awesome and I appreciate it on the way out the Big Blue door.  Thanks for the laugh.  It has increased my resiliency!

When humor and risk are dead in our service, pack it up and wave the white flag.  Morale is vitally important in our business, and while some might be tempted to think that fact can be masked, it becomes undeniable when it comes time to break the glass and deliver the product.