Civic Essays
What We Owe the Next Generation
There is a kind of conversation that has gone out of fashion in this country, and we are paying for its absence. It is the conversation older people used to [...]
The Havok Journal | Military & Veteran News, Commentary, Culture
- Coming Home from Afghanistan September 5, 2026By Chris Fitzmaurice The following is part of a collection of short stories titled Insha’Allah: Short Stories of the Long War in Afghanistan.” Chris began writing this collection while deployed to Afghanistan in 2018. He wanted to share the lesser-known side of the war with friends, family, and, one day, readers. His message is that […]Special Guest
- Shut Up and Dig! September 5, 2026by Jake Walsh Basic training was full of new and unique games. Looking back, I was in over my head thinking I’d be able to recognize them as they were conjured and we were underhandedly immersed in them. It was finally afternoon. We had walked all morning and half the night before to get to […]Special Guest
- Politics Is the Only Racket That’s Legal September 4, 2026There is an old saying that circulates with remarkable frequency whenever public confidence in government declines: “Politics is the only racket that’s legal.” The quotation is widely repeated, although its precise origin is difficult to establish. Unlike many famous political aphorisms, it cannot be reliably traced to a single individual or publication. It appears to […]Charles Faint
- Why I Ruck When Nobody Makes Me September 4, 2026It’s 0300 on a Thursday at Camp Rogers, Fort Benning. Day 4 of Ranger School, RAP week, and we’re about to start the 12-mile ruck. Our bodies are more broken than any RAP week class before us, and there’s a reason for that. My class was the guinea pig. The Army rolled out the new […]James B.
- A UK Combat Veteran’s Fight After War September 4, 2026This originally appeared in vocal media as “Who is Justin Haywood?” and is republished here with the author’s permission. ________ It was suggested that I had borderline personality disorder/emotionally unstable personality disorder at age 38, following a mental breakdown that followed a breakdown of my body. In hindsight, all the signs were there but I […]Special Guest
