In good news, arguably the best living general in America, and the entire world, is the nominee for Secretary of Defense. If General James Mattis is SECDEF, the military will change in stunning ways.
Watching Mattis in action made me sure I will continue the blog in 2017. It will be the place I blog daily as I ride across what I am calling Russia, but what is really the former Soviet Union. I will be riding south to north primarily in former Soviet states. Route is not yet fixed.
Another reason to continue blogging about the Army in 2017 was given to me by Google stats. It turns out seven of the ten most-read posts since I started writing in late 2007 were written and posted during 2016.
The top of the list was a interview with Command Sergeant Major of the Army National Guard Christopher Kepner. Also in the top ten was a flight medic with two tours in Iraq, Staff Sergeant Pamela Leggore.
Dropping to second place was the post about the trailers we lived in while we were at Camp Adder, Iraq. A post comparing Soviet and American armor during the 1973 war in Israel was the next most popular. Israel was the Cold War lab for testing NATO weapons against Warsaw Pact (Soviet) weapons. Staying with the Cold War theme, another popular post was about the Cold War draft Army being the best of the several branches I served in.
Another Cold War post with more than 700 readers is about the Soviet War in Afghanistan. I just posted that last week. That terrible war helped bring down the Soviet Union at a huge cost to families in Soviet States.
In the coming year I will be writing about the military under General Mattis (assuming he is confirmed), about visiting NATO countries that were formerly Soviet states, and about being an old soldier who served in the military off and on since 1972.
Happy New Year!
