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

• Before the Cut February 17, 2026
  The dream is back. I’m an Operating Room (OR) nurse again. The dreams always return when I get too close to the years I’ve sealed away. I’m in a different OR in every dream, but it’s the same sequences, the same rising tension. I’m always in ORs I don’t recognize but should. The patient is […]
  Mike Warnock
• You Sent Us to War Now Listen February 17, 2026
  My war has been over for nearly two decades. I took off the uniform, balled it up, and shoved it deep inside a musty green Army duffel bag. It now lives unceremoniously in my attic. I’m not sure why I saved my uniforms. I don’t have any children. I’ll never have an heir. There’s really […]
  Stan Lake
• Finding Fulfillment: “A Warriors Quest for Serenity” February 17, 2026
  By Chuck Ritter This first appeared in Objective Arete and is republished with permission. In your mind’s eye, travel far ahead into the future—to the moment when you find yourself on your deathbed. As you reflect on your life, ask yourself: Are you truly fulfilled? When death takes you, will you be happy because you […]
  Special Guest
• Speak Only to Improve the Silence February 16, 2026
  There’s a kind of silence that comes with age, and experience, and, if we’re lucky, wisdom. Sometimes in the military it’s the silence that settles in right before a breach—everybody stacked, breathing controlled, metal and nylon quiet, minds loud. It’s the silence after a nine-line MEDEVAC goes out and you’re waiting for the rotors. It’s […]
  Charles Faint
• Warriors: We Have Earned the Rest of Our Lives February 16, 2026
  By Joe DeCree To All My Brothers and Sister Warriors, I have been reading the traffic on this blog for a couple of years and it has helped me immensely in my own journey back to light. The recent post “When You Can’t Be a Warrior Anymore… Is There a Reason to Go On?” hits […]
  Special Guest