The Havok Journal | Military & Veteran News, Commentary, Culture

• Failure Got Promoted and You Got the Bill June 9, 2026
  Failure used to leave a bruise. Now it gets a staff retreat, a revised title, and a lanyard printed by people who think “impact” is a substitute for having one. That’s the great trick of our age. Institutions no longer have to succeed. They only have to survive the press cycle, rename the crater, and […]
  Tammy Pondsmith
• The Information Age Made Communication Worse June 9, 2026
  For decades, we were told that computers, email, and digital communications would create the paperless office. The promise was simple: information would move faster, organizations would become more efficient, and mountains of paperwork would become relics of a bygone era. There was only one problem. Human nature got involved. As someone who entered the military […]
  Dave Chamberlin
• Dry Spell June 9, 2026
  If you’re reading this in the Southeast, you know that we’ve been in a severe drought. My little area in North Carolina is between 8 and 12 inches below average. Spring showers have been playing coy, and any precipitation we’ve gotten has been minuscule, just enough to moisten the pollen but not enough to quench […]
  Stan Lake
• Rebellion is Born when Rulers Forget They Are Meant to Serve June 8, 2026
  History is full of uprisings, revolutions, and rebellions—and almost all of them share the same root cause: rulers who forget their duty is to serve the people, not themselves. When I was in graduate school, one of the things we studied was Ted Robert Gurr’s seminal work, Why Men Rebel. It was the first time […]
  Charles Faint
• The Veteran Transition Landscape Is Changing. Here’s What That Means, and Where It’s Going Next. June 8, 2026
  By Reggie Mills, Meagan Thrift, Alex Genovese, and Adrianne Huls For years, the national conversation about veteran transition focused on one question: How do we help people leave the military? Today, the question needs to be different. Increasingly, the men and women who serve our nation are asking something more important, and much deeper: How […]
  Special Guest