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

• Congratulations, Your Spouse Has Been Promoted to Casualty Affairs Officer July 21, 2026
  Veterans love readiness. They label cables, rotate supplies, memorize obscure acronyms, and keep enough batteries to power a minor coup. Some of them can still describe the location of a trauma kit in a vehicle they sold twelve years ago. Then they die and leave their spouse a shoebox containing an expired ID card, two […]
  Tammy Pondsmith
• Wisdom is Where You Find It, Even at Biker Bars and Redneck Rat Cage Juke Joints July 21, 2026
  This is somewhere in the late ’80s. I was on the back patio of this skeezy redneck rat cage juke joint where I was Head of Security, trying to figure out what’s up with this guy who couldn’t take two steps without crashing into the furniture but showed no other signs of intoxication, when I […]
  Michael Bama Katt
• Confessions of a Police Officer July 21, 2026
  By Jill Wragg Dear Citizens, Neighbors, Friends, and Family, My name is Jill and I am a cop. That means that the pains and joys of my personal life are often muted by my work. I resent the intrusion but I confuse myself with my job almost as often as you do. The label “police […]
  Special Guest
• The Danger of Being “Normal”: Carl Jung and the Illusion of Stability July 20, 2026
  In military culture, “normal” is often treated as a benchmark. A soldier is expected to behave normally under pressure, to react normally to stress, to reintegrate normally after deployment. The word itself carries weight—it implies stability, reliability, predictability. In a profession where chaos is ever-present, normalcy becomes a form of reassurance. Carl Jung would have […]
  Charles Faint
• Extremism Starts Before the Weapon July 20, 2026
  My understanding of radicalization did not begin in a classroom. It began much earlier, shaped by personal experience, growing up in environments affected by civil conflict, witnessing firsthand how instability, fear, and identity can reshape communities and individuals. I have seen how quickly ordinary life can fracture under pressure, and how narratives of grievance and […]
  Sergeant Ayman Kafel, MSC