I'm Ryan Gunning, a Marine Corps veteran who calls Jacksonville home, and Veterans Day here is something to see. The city calls its Veterans Day Parade the largest observance of its kind in Florida, with more than 2,500 participants every year. It's free, it's downtown, and this year it lands on a Wednesday. Here's what to know if you want to be there, plus a few other ways to show up for the veteran community on the First Coast this month.

When and where

The 2026 Jacksonville Veterans Day Parade steps off at 11:01 a.m. on Wednesday, November 11. That one minute past eleven is on purpose: it nods to the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the World War I armistice took effect in 1918.

According to the city's parade page, the route runs about 1.3 miles. It starts on Water Street in front of the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts, heads east to Hogan Street, turns left on Hogan and right onto Bay Street, then continues east. After passing Lot S it shifts into the westbound lane of Bay Street, turns left onto A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, and wraps up at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

Expect grand marshals, senior military leaders, active-duty and retired units, veteran organizations, Junior ROTC detachments, high school marching bands and floats. There are no tickets and no cost.

Where to watch

The city points spectators to Bay Street between Hogan Street and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard. A popular central spot is Ford on Bay, near South Liberty Street and East Bay Street. Every public viewing area is first come, first served, so get there early if you want a spot on the curb. The city also asks folks to wear red, white and blue and bring a flag, which is about the easiest assignment you'll ever get.

Road closures and parking

Because it's a weekday, plan around work and school traffic. Per the city:

• Full closures start at 7 a.m. on Park Street (Stonewall to Bay), Lee Street (Bay to Water) and Water Street (Park to Hogan).
• More closures start at 10 a.m., including parts of Main Street near the Main Street Bridge, Riverside Avenue at the Acosta Bridge on-ramp, the Acosta Bridge off-ramp to Water Street, Forsyth, Monroe, Newnan, A. Philip Randolph and Gator Bowl Boulevard.
• Street parking and meters along Water, Hogan, Bay and A. Philip Randolph will be bagged on November 10, so don't leave a car on those blocks overnight. A downtown garage away from the route is the better bet.

Closure times can change for public safety, so check the city's page the morning of.

More ways to show up this month

The parade is the big one, but it isn't the only thing on the calendar. The City of Jacksonville's Military Affairs and Veterans Department lists several events in November, including:

• November 6: the Veterans Flight Line Run.
• November 7: the Wounded Warrior Project Carry It Forward 5K, and the 2nd Annual UF Health Brain Health Summit.
• November 12 and 18: a veteran service officer (VSO) at the Wesconnett Regional Library, then at the Pablo Creek Library. If you've been putting off a question about your benefits, that's a free, face-to-face way to ask it.

And mark your calendar for Saturday, December 19, when Wreaths Across America comes to Jacksonville National Cemetery on Lannie Road. The main ceremony begins at 11:15 a.m., and everyone is welcome to help place wreaths afterward. Organizers run free shuttles from remote parking on Lem Turner Road.

Why it matters to me

Veterans Day is for the living, for everyone who raised a hand and served. For a lot of us, the best part of a day like this isn't the floats. It's seeing the guy next to you on the curb wearing an old unit hat and realizing you have more in common than you thought.

That's the same idea behind The Calm Seas Project, the nonprofit I founded to get veterans and first responders out on the water together. The weekend before Veterans Day, November 6 to 8, we're hosting our Veteran Wellness Retreat right here in Jacksonville, with charter fishing, breathwork, a sound bath, shared meals and a virtual wellness session. Then the next day, November 10, the Marine Corps turns 251. I wrote about that here, and about free public lands access on Veterans Day here.

If you're downtown on the 11th, look for the veterans around you and say thanks. If you're a veteran yourself, go. You earned the day. Semper Fi.

More about my life on the First Coast is on my Ryan Gunning, Jacksonville page.

Sources: City of Jacksonville: 2026 Veterans Day Parade · City of Jacksonville Military Affairs and Veterans Department: November 2026 calendar · Wreaths Across America Jacksonville: event details

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

In four days, seven veterans from every branch arrive in Jacksonville for The Calm Seas Project's Veteran Wellness Retreat, November 6 to 8, 2026. Plenty of people have asked me why the weekend is built around fishing. My honest first answer is that The Calm Seas Project started as an idea among friends on a fishing trip, so it's where we know how to begin. My second answer is that researchers have studied this, and what they found lines up with what I've seen on the water.

What the studies actually found

I want to be careful here. These are mostly small studies, and fishing isn't a cure or a replacement for care. But the results point in the same direction.

• A 2013 pilot in Military Medicine followed 74 veterans with PTSD through a two-day, three-night outdoor recreation program that included fly-fishing. The researchers saw improved attentiveness and mood during the trip, plus sustained reductions in anxiety, depression and physical symptoms of stress. At a six-week follow-up, participants also reported better sleep and lower perceived stress and PTSD symptoms.
• A VA Research story covered a study of 73 veterans who joined group wilderness programs lasting four to seven days, with fly-fishing among the activities. About a week later, the 54 who completed the follow-up survey reported more than a 10 percent improvement in psychological well-being, a 9 percent increase in social functioning and a nearly 8 percent gain in positive outlook on life. There was little, if any, structured therapy. The experience itself was the point.
• A study of a four-day therapeutic fly-fishing program followed 40 veterans with combat-related disabilities. It found significant decreases in symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression, perceived stress and functional impairment from before to after the program.
• A 2020 study in PLOS One tested brief peer outdoor activities for UK veterans with PTSD. In its second experiment, a waitlist-controlled trial of an angling experience with 18 participants, PTSD symptoms dropped significantly compared with the waitlist group.

Two more details stood out to me. In the first PLOS One experiment, which compared angling, equine care and archery with falconry, the improvement didn't differ significantly by activity, so the shared outdoor time with peers may matter as much as the specific hobby. And in a focus-group study of fly-fishing veterans, participants described it as a breather from PTSD and a way to feel in control again.

What I take from it

A weekend doesn't replace counseling, and none of this says it does. Many of these samples were small, some had no comparison group, and the researchers say more work is needed. What I take from it is simpler: getting veterans together, outside, doing something with their hands and no agenda beyond the day, seems to help. That's the idea behind the guided charter fishing at our retreat, and it's why we pair it with a sound bath, breathwork, group meals and a virtual wellness session rather than leaving it at fishing alone.

To see how the rest of the weekend fits together, I wrote about the sound bath, breathwork for veterans, why the shared meals matter and what to pack.

How you can help

The Calm Seas Project raised more than $40,000 in its first four months, and that support is what gets veterans and first responders out on the water. To back the Jacksonville retreat or point a veteran our way, start at calmseasproject.org, read why I started The Calm Seas Project, and follow along on Instagram and Facebook at calmseasproject.

If you or a veteran you know is struggling right now, don't wait for a trip. Call or text 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, any time, day or night.

Sources: Military Medicine (2013), outdoor recreation program and PTSD pilot study · VA Research Currents, “Outdoor activities improve mental health in Veterans, study finds” · Therapeutic fly-fishing program for veterans with combat-related disabilities (PubMed) · PLOS One (2020), outdoor activity experiences and PTSD in veterans · Therapeutic Recreation Journal, fly-fishing and PTSD focus-group study · Veterans Crisis Line · The Calm Seas Project

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

I'm Ryan Gunning, and if you've ever waited on a VA claim, you know the waiting can feel like its own kind of deployment. So a press release from the Department of Veterans Affairs this week caught my eye. On October 29, VA announced it plans to hire more than 2,000 people in fiscal year 2027 to process veterans' benefits claims. That's news for anyone with a claim in the pipeline, and it could also be a career for a Marine getting ready to hang up the uniform.

Why VA needs the help

According to VA, it already has more than 13,000 employees processing claims, and that team handled a record 3.1 million compensation and pension claims in fiscal year 2026. VA says it granted 60.1% of the claims filed, posted its best accuracy rate in three years at 93.88%, and saw only 3.2% of decisions appealed to the Board of Veterans' Appeals.

The workload is still climbing. VA received more than 3.15 million claims submissions in FY2026, an 80% increase over FY2022. Part of that, the department says, comes from its own outreach: more than 11,000 live events in FY2026 aimed at veterans who had never enrolled, and more than 300,000 new veterans in VA health care so far in 2026. More veterans asking for what they earned is a good thing. It just takes people to keep up.

A way in before you get out

The part I want transitioning Marines to hear is about the Warrior Training Advancement Course, or WARTAC. It lets wounded warriors and service members with 180 days or less left in service complete VA's national training program for claims work while still on active duty. Finishing it can lead to a job at one of VA's regional benefits offices. VA's own SkillBridge guide lists WARTAC as one of its SkillBridge programs, so it fits the same final-months window I wrote about in my SkillBridge post.

There are two tracks. The Veteran Service Representative (VSR) course runs seven weeks, and the Rating Veteran Service Representative (RVSR) course runs eleven. VSRs explain benefits, gather evidence and decide claims. RVSRs determine whether a condition is connected to service and assign the rating. For the VSR track, VA asks for one year of specialized experience at the GS-05 level, a full year of graduate school, a bachelor's degree with a 3.0 GPA or higher, or a combination.

Timing matters. You have to attend a WARTAC briefing at least 90 days before the cohort you want to join. VA's schedule lists fiscal year 2027 VSR cohorts starting February 1, April 26 and July 26, 2027, and it notes the dates can change. If your EAS is next spring or summer, now is the time to bring it up with your transition counselor.

My two cents

I like the idea of veterans working veterans' claims. Somebody who has worn the uniform knows what a service record looks like, and why a sore back after years of humping gear isn't a small thing. That understanding doesn't replace the rules, but it helps the person on the other end of the file feel heard.

And if you're on the other side of the desk, waiting on a decision, you don't have to do it alone. VA says the help an accredited Veterans Service Organization representative gives you on your claim is always free. Look one up with VA's search tool before you pay anyone.

Whether you're filing a claim or thinking about a job deciding them, the mission is the same: make sure veterans get what they earned. That's work worth doing. Semper Fi.

Sources: VA News: VA hiring 2,000+ employees to process rising number of Veteran claims (Oct. 29, 2026) · VA: Warrior Training Advancement Course (WARTAC) · VA SkillBridge Introductory Guide · VA.gov: Get help from a VA accredited representative or VSO

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

This month marks 83 years since the 2d Marine Division waded ashore at Tarawa. On November 20, 1943, the Marines hit the beaches of Betio, a tiny, heavily fortified island in the Gilbert Islands. Among the first to land was a scout-sniper platoon led by First Lieutenant William Deane Hawkins. This week's American Valor is his story.

Turned away, then a Marine

Hawkins was born in 1914 in Fort Scott, Kansas, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. When he was a baby, a scalding accident left him with lasting scars. After Pearl Harbor he tried to join both the Army and the Navy Air Corps, and both turned him down because of those scars. The Marine Corps took him. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on January 5, 1942, went through recruit training in San Diego, joined the 2d Marines, 2d Marine Division, and completed Scout Snipers' School at Camp Elliott (Marine Corps History Division).

He shipped out for the Pacific as a private first class and was quickly promoted to corporal and then sergeant. On November 17, 1942, during the Guadalcanal campaign, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the field. He made first lieutenant on June 1, 1943, less than six months before Tarawa (Marine Corps History Division).

First off the boat at the Betio pier

Hawkins commanded the Scout Sniper Platoon attached to the assault regiment. His platoon's job was to clear the long pier that ran out from Betio's shore so the assault waves could get onto the beach. According to his Medal of Honor citation, he was "the first to disembark from the jeep lighter" and "unhesitatingly moved forward under heavy enemy fire at the end of the Betio Pier, neutralizing emplacements in coverage of troops assaulting the main beach positions." Through the rest of that day and night, he "repeatedly risked his life" leading attacks on pillboxes and installations with grenades and demolitions (Medal of Honor citation, CMOHS).

November 21, 1943

At dawn the next morning, Hawkins went back to clearing the narrow beachhead. He personally started an assault on a position held by five enemy machine guns and, "crawling forward in the face of withering fire, boldly fired point-blank into the loopholes and completed the destruction with grenades." He was seriously wounded in the chest during that fight and refused to withdraw. He kept going and destroyed three more pillboxes before he was caught in a burst of shellfire and mortally wounded (Medal of Honor citation, CMOHS).

His citation closes with the line that sums him up: "His relentless fighting spirit in the face of formidable opposition and his exceptionally daring tactics served as an inspiration to his comrades during the most crucial phase of the battle." He was 29 years old (Medal of Honor citation, CMOHS).

Hawkins Field

Hawkins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented it to his family at the White House in 1944 (Congressional Medal of Honor Society). The airstrip on Betio was named Hawkins Field in his honor. He rests in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii (Marine Corps History Division). His medal is held today by the El Paso County Historical Society, back in the city where he grew up (CMOHS).

Why this story stays with me

Hawkins was a man the other services said no to, and the Marine Corps gave him a chance. He went from private to platoon commander in about a year and then led from the very front, the first man off the boat and the last to quit the fight. Tarawa is one of the battles every Marine hears about early, and names like his are the reason. With the Corps' birthday on November 10 and Veterans Day right after, he's a good one to remember this month.

About the author

Ryan Gunning is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran in Jacksonville, Florida, and the founder of The Calm Seas Project, which takes veterans and first responders out on the water. American Valor posts every Sunday morning.

Sources: Medal of Honor citation (Congressional Medal of Honor Society) · Marine Corps History Division biography · National Medal of Honor Museum · Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients, World War II

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in American Valor.

There's no Crimson Tide game today, and after the last month, I think Alabama earned the break. I'm a U.S. Marine Corps veteran (2014–2018) and a two-time University of Alabama graduate, and even from Jacksonville, FL, fall Saturdays still pull me back to Tuscaloosa. This bye week is a good time to look back at last Saturday's comeback against Texas A&M and ahead to the trip to LSU. For more on my own years there, see Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Texas A&M comeback

Alabama came into Homecoming on Oct. 24 off back-to-back losses to Georgia and Tennessee, and for three quarters it looked like it might get worse. The Tide trailed Texas A&M 20–17 going into the fourth quarter. Then Alabama outscored the Aggies 14–0 the rest of the way and won 31–20 in front of a sold-out crowd at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, per Alabama Athletics' game recap.

• A defense that closed the door: all three Texas A&M drives in the fourth quarter ended in three-and-outs, and the Aggies gained just 15 yards over the last 15 minutes.
• A key fourth-down stop: A&M fumbled on a fourth-and-1 sneak near midfield, and three plays later Alabama scored to take the lead for good, per ESPN's recap.
• Turnovers: the defense forced three, including a 39-yard interception return for a touchdown. Alabama has forced 19 turnovers this season and returned a nation-leading five interceptions for touchdowns.
• The passing game: Alabama's quarterback threw for 311 yards and three touchdowns, and the Tide's top receiver that day had a career-high 156 yards.

It was Alabama's 105th Homecoming game, and the win snapped the two-game skid. ESPN noted it kept the program from its first three-game losing streak since 2007.

What a Marine sees in a fourth quarter like that

In the Marine Corps, you learn quickly that a plan rarely survives first contact. What matters is how a unit reacts when things go sideways: whether people keep doing their jobs, trust each other, and execute the basics under pressure. Down three going into the fourth, after two straight losses, a lot of teams would have pressed. Alabama's defense instead got three straight stops. That's discipline, and it's the part of this game I'll remember.

It's also the same lesson I tried to bring into the classroom at Alabama. I studied operations management, which is mostly about making a process hold up when conditions change. Football is a pretty good example of that.

Why the bye week matters

Alabama is 6–2 overall and 4–2 in the SEC, according to the official 2026 schedule and results on RollTide.com. The open date on Oct. 31 comes at a good time. ESPN reported that Alabama was missing players in the secondary against A&M because of injury and other absences, and two weeks between games gives a banged-up roster time to heal.

The Marine Corps has its own version of a bye week. Between deployments or big training evolutions, units take time to refit: fix gear, rest people, and train on what went wrong. The teams that use that time well usually look sharper on the other side of it.

What's left on the schedule

Here is the rest of Alabama's regular season, from the official schedule:

• Nov. 7: at LSU, Baton Rouge, 2:30 p.m. CT (3:30 p.m. ET)
• Nov. 14: at Vanderbilt, Nashville (early kickoff, time to be announced)
• Nov. 21: Chattanooga in Tuscaloosa, 1 p.m. CT
• Nov. 28: Auburn in Tuscaloosa, the Iron Bowl (kickoff time to be set)

ESPN wrote after the A&M game that if the Tide doesn't lose again, a College Football Playoff spot is well within reach. The trip to Baton Rouge is where that starts.

Veterans Day week and Bama Salute

The stretch between LSU and Vanderbilt runs right through the Marine Corps Birthday on Nov. 10 and Veterans Day on Nov. 11. Then on Nov. 21, Alabama hosts its Bama Salute Military Appreciation Day against Chattanooga, which is also Senior Day, per the official game center. I wrote more about the program in my post on Crimson Tide game days and Bama Salute.

That game means a lot to me. In 2024, I was honored at Alabama's Bama Salute military appreciation football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. If you're a veteran anywhere near Tuscaloosa, that's the home game I'd circle.

From Tuscaloosa to Jacksonville

I came to Tuscaloosa after the Marine Corps and left with a bachelor's in operations management, a minor in supply chain management, and an accelerated master's. The University of Alabama shared the story of my degree on MeritPages, and my President's List and Dean's List terms are listed in my University of Alabama academic honors. You can read more on my Education page and About page.

Today I run The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, but I still watch every Alabama game I can. Enjoy the off week, and if you know a veteran who bleeds crimson, check in on them before Veterans Day. Roll Tide.

Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa → About Ryan Gunning Education Student Veterans at Alabama

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

This time of year, a lot of my reading drifts back to the Pacific. Eighty-four years ago this coming week, on November 4, 1942, two companies of the 2d Marine Raider Battalion came ashore at Aola Bay on the northeast coast of Guadalcanal. Two days later they walked into the jungle on what Marines still call “the Long Patrol.” I'm Ryan Gunning, and as the Marine Corps' 251st birthday gets closer, this is one of the stories I keep coming back to.

A month behind the lines

The Raiders were led by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson. According to the Marine Corps history of the Raiders, they had landed to secure a beachhead for a planned airfield, but the swampy ground at Aola turned out to be no place for one. On November 5, Major General Alexander Vandegrift sent Carlson new orders by airdrop: march west and hit a large Japanese force from the rear as it tried to slip out of an encirclement near the Metapona River.

They set out on November 6 with a coastwatcher and island scouts as guides, among them Sergeant Major Jacob Vouza, already a hero of the campaign. For the next month, Carlson's companies fanned out in small patrols, fought more than a dozen actions, and covered roughly 150 miles of jungle and ridgeline. Resupply came mostly by Higgins boat to the coast and then on the backs of local porters. The food was tea, rice, raisins and bacon, with the occasional chocolate bar.

On November 30, a squad led by Corporal John Yancey surprised a Japanese bivouac of about 100 men. Yancey rushed in firing and the squad followed. Carlson called it “the most spectacular of any of our engagements,” and Yancey earned the first of his two Navy Crosses. Along the way they also tracked down and disabled a Japanese mountain gun, part of their orders to hunt the artillery harassing Henderson Field.

The cost nobody counted at first

By the time they walked back into the Marine lines on December 4, the official history credits the battalion with 488 enemy killed, at a cost of 16 Raiders killed and 18 wounded. But those numbers hide the real price. The battalion evacuated 225 men for malaria, dysentery and jungle rot. Two companies that started with 133 men each came back with 57 between them. General Vandegrift still cited the Raiders for their “training, stamina and fortitude” and their “high morale.”

Where “Gung Ho” comes from

Carlson gave the Corps a phrase we still use. He borrowed “Gung Ho” from the slogan of the Chinese industrial cooperatives he had seen while serving in China, and he told his Marines it meant “work together.” A September 1942 press release called it the Raiders' battle cry. NPR notes the literal Chinese doesn't quite mean that, but Carlson's version is the one that stuck. Today most people use it to mean “enthusiastic.” On the Long Patrol it meant something simpler: nobody gets through the jungle alone. Even on the last push, Carlson held a “Gung Ho” meeting to rally his worn-out men for one more climb.

My two cents

I never patrolled a jungle like Guadalcanal, but I know what it means to be tired, far from home, and depending on the Marine next to you. What strikes me about the Long Patrol isn't just the fighting. It's the scouts who led the way, the porters who carried the rice, and a commander who kept telling his Marines they were in it together. That's the part that travels well past 1942.

It's also why I started The Calm Seas Project. A lot of veterans leave the service and lose the team that got them through. Work together isn't a bad motto for civilian life either.

So this November, before the cake and the birthday ball, take a minute to read about the Raiders. And if there's someone you served with who carried more than their share, call them. Gung Ho, and Semper Fi.

Sources: Maj. Jon T. Hoffman, USMCR, From Makin to Bougainville: Marine Raiders in the Pacific War (Marine Corps Historical Center), “The Long Patrol” · USMC Historical Monograph: The Guadalcanal Campaign · Naval History Magazine: The Marines' Commando Experiment · U.S. Navy: Makin Island Embodies the “Gung Ho” Spirit of its Namesake · Press release, September 6, 1942: “Carlson's Raiders” Have Battle-Cry · NPR Code Switch: The Long, Strange Journey of “Gung Ho”

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Here's a piece of Marine Corps news that won't make the evening broadcast, but it could save a young Marine a semester of tuition. On October 16, Marine Corps Community Services at Marine Corps Base Quantico opened a National Testing Center inside the base's Voluntary Education Center. It sounds like a small thing. From where I sit, it's exactly the kind of small thing that changes what happens after the uniform comes off.

What opened at Quantico

According to the Marine Corps, Marines at Quantico used to have two options for college-credit exams: pay standard fees at an off-base testing center, or drive about an hour to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, which had been the only active National Testing Center in the National Capital Region. Now education counseling, in-person test prep, testing and credentialing support all sit in one building on base.

The center offers the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST), Pearson professional assessments, and eligible certification exams tied to programs like Marine Corps Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL). It was opened through a partnership with Grand Canyon University, which the Marine Corps says fully funded the center.

The line from the story that stuck with me came from the base's MCCS director: sometimes the biggest obstacle to higher education is simply knowing where to begin. A junior Marine with a family quoted in the same story said paying for exams would have been hard on his budget. I believe both of them. When you're working long days and running a household on a lance corporal's pay, “drive an hour and pay a fee” is often where the plan dies.

Why a few hours of testing matters

CLEP and DSST exams let you earn college credit for what you already know or learned in training. DANTES, the Defense Department office that runs the funding, says the average exam takes a few hours instead of 8 to 15 weeks in a classroom. Scores show up on your Joint Services Transcript, and credit you earn this way can replace courses you would otherwise pay for with Tuition Assistance.

A few details worth knowing before you book a seat:

• Who DANTES pays for: actively serving members, including Guard and Reserve, with a valid Common Access Card. DANTES funds one attempt per exam title.
• Retests: not funded. DANTES says you wait three months and pay the exam and administration fees yourself.
• Check with your school first: DANTES recommends asking your school adviser which exams it will accept for your degree plan before you test.

Already out? You still have options

Separated veterans aren't covered by DANTES funding, and that's where a lot of us fall off the map. But the VA says the GI Bill can pay you back for national tests, including CLEP and DSST, if you're covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Montgomery GI Bill (Active Duty or Selected Reserve), or Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance. The VA reimburses registration and administrative fees, even if you don't pass, and charges your entitlement based on the amount it pays. You request it with VA Form 22-0810 along with your receipt and your results. DANTES also points veterans who don't qualify for its funding to Modern States, a nonprofit offering no-cost CLEP vouchers.

My two cents

When I went from the Marine Corps to the University of Alabama, I learned fast that the hardest part of school wasn't the coursework. It was the first step: figuring out the system, the paperwork and where to start. Anything that puts that first step inside the gate, next to a counselor who can answer questions, is a win for Marines.

If you're still in, walk into your base education center this month and ask what exams they offer. If you're out, check your GI Bill before you pay out of pocket. And if you know a young Marine who keeps saying “someday” about college, forward this to them. A few hours on a Saturday could be the start.

Semper Fi.

Sources: Marine Corps Base Quantico: Quantico's New National Testing Center opens doors to furthering education · DANTES: College Credit by Examination (CLEP) · DANTES: College Credit by Examination (DSST) · DANTES: Eligible for DANTES-funded CLEP and DSST exams? · U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: National Tests

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

One week from today, seven veterans from every branch arrive in Jacksonville for The Calm Seas Project's Veteran Wellness Retreat, November 6 to 8, 2026. Most of the talk about the weekend goes to the guided charter fishing, and I get it. That's the hook. But I've been thinking a lot this week about the part of the schedule that doesn't get its own flyer: the group meals.

Where the real conversations happen

The Calm Seas Project started as an idea among friends on a fishing trip. If you ask me where that idea actually took shape, it wasn't on the water. It was afterward, sitting around with food, nobody in a hurry, telling stories about the day and then about everything else. The boat gets people in the same place. The table is where they start talking.

That's why the retreat isn't just fishing followed by everyone going their separate ways. We share an Airbnb, we eat together, and the sound bath, breathwork and virtual wellness session all sit around those meals. Seven people who may not know each other on Friday should feel like a crew by Sunday.

What the research says about eating together

This isn't only a gut feeling. In a 2017 paper in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, Oxford researcher R.I.M. Dunbar looked at data from a UK national survey. People who ate with others more often reported feeling happier and more satisfied with life, trusted others more, were more engaged in their communities, and had more friends they could count on for support. Evening meals that left people feeling closer tended to involve more people, more laughter and more reminiscing.

The bigger picture is even stronger. A 2010 meta-analysis in PLOS Medicine by Holt-Lunstad and colleagues pooled 148 studies with more than 300,000 participants and found that people with stronger social relationships had a 50% greater likelihood of survival over the study periods. The authors concluded that the effect of social relationships on mortality risk is comparable to well-established risk factors.

Neither study was about veterans specifically, and a shared dinner isn't treatment. But anyone who has left the service knows what it's like to lose the unit, the chow hall and the people you ate every meal with. Getting some of that back, even for a weekend, matters.

What I'd tell anyone coming next week

• Show up to the meals. Even if you're tired from a day on the boat, come sit down. That's where the weekend comes together.
• You don't have to tell your whole story. Talk about the fish you lost. That counts.
• Swap numbers before you leave. The goal is a connection that outlasts the weekend.
• Pack light and bring layers. My packing list has the rest.

For the rest of the schedule, I wrote about the sound bath and breathwork for veterans earlier this month.

How you can help

The Calm Seas Project raised more than $40,000 in its first four months, and that support is what puts veterans and first responders on the water and around the table. If you want to back the Jacksonville retreat or point a veteran our way, start at calmseasproject.org, read why I started The Calm Seas Project, and follow along on Instagram and Facebook at calmseasproject. If you're a veteran looking for stories from others who've made the transition, VA's Make the Connection is a good place to start.

If you or a veteran you know is struggling right now, don't wait for a trip. Call or text 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, any time, day or night.

Sources: Dunbar, Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology (2017) · Holt-Lunstad et al., PLOS Medicine (2010) · Veterans Crisis Line · The Calm Seas Project

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

This week's Soldier of Fortune is an Air Force veteran who started out sending cookies to the people he wanted to work with and ended up putting his name on one of the best-known cookie brands in America.

From Tallahassee to Hickam

Wallace "Wally" Amos Jr. was born in Tallahassee, Florida, on July 1, 1936. At 12 he moved to New York City to live with his aunt, Della Bryant, whose chocolate chip cookies became the recipe he later built a business on. He enrolled at a food trades vocational high school, then dropped out to join the U.S. Air Force. He served at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu from 1954 to 1957 and earned his high school equivalency diploma before he was honorably discharged.

A cookie as a calling card

Back in New York, Amos took secretarial classes and landed a mailroom job at the William Morris Agency. He worked his way up to become the agency's first African American talent agent and ran its rock and roll department. His trademark move was simple: he sent prospective clients homemade chocolate chip cookies with an invitation to come see him.

In March 1975, at a friend's suggestion, he opened the first Famous Amos cookie store in Los Angeles, backed by a $25,000 loan. The brand grew from that one storefront to supermarket shelves across the country, and in 1986 Amos received an Entrepreneurial Excellence Award at the White House Conference on Small Business.

Losing the name and starting over

The business wasn't a straight line up. Financial trouble forced Amos to sell the Famous Amos company in 1988, and because the company owned the trademark, he couldn't use his own nickname on a new product. He started over anyway: Uncle Noname cookies, then Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins in 1994, renamed Uncle Wally's Muffin Company in 1999 and sold in more than 3,500 stores. Decades later he came back to cookies with The Cookie Kahuna in Hawaii and even pitched it on Shark Tank in 2016.

Using success to teach others to read

Starting in 1979, Amos threw himself into adult literacy through Literacy Volunteers of America, and in 1987 he hosted the public television series Learn to Read. The Air Force photo above shows that commitment in action: in 2007 he was back at Hickam, the base where he once served, reading to kids at the Child Development Center during Air Force Week Honolulu. He died in Honolulu on August 13, 2024, at age 88.

What veterans can take from it

• Finish what the service starts. Amos used his Air Force years to earn the diploma he'd walked away from. Use every benefit you've got.
• Make yourself memorable. A batch of cookies opened doors that a cold call never would have. Find your own calling card.
• Get back up after a loss. He lost the company and the name and still built new brands. A setback isn't the end of the mission.
• Give back where you can. His literacy work outlasted every cookie. Success means more when it lifts somebody else.

Wally Amos proves you don't need a big start to build something people remember. You need a good recipe, persistence, and the nerve to start again. Aim High.

Know a veteran founder or veteran-owned business I should feature next? Let me know.

Sources: Wally Amos, Wikipedia (citing The New York Times, Honolulu Magazine and the Smithsonian's Famous Amos Collection) · U.S. Air Force photo 070910-F-2034C-203 and caption, via Wikimedia Commons

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Soldier of Fortune.

Veterans Day is less than two weeks out, and every year I hear the same thing from Marines I served with: “I didn't know we could do that.” So this Mail Call is a short one about a benefit a lot of us leave sitting on the table. It has nothing to do with paperwork at the VA. It's about getting outside.

Free entry on November 11

On Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, 2026, every National Park Service site that normally charges an entrance fee is free. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is doing the same at its national wildlife refuges and other lands that charge an entrance fee. Two catches are worth knowing. The waiver covers entrance fees only, so camping, timed-entry reservations, tours and concession fees can still apply. And starting in 2026, the National Park Service says fee-free days apply to U.S. citizens and residents only.

The pass most veterans don't know they have

Here's the bigger deal. You don't have to wait for a holiday. Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard and Reserves, are eligible for a free Military Lifetime Pass. Gold Star Families qualify too. Current service members and their dependents can get a free Military Annual Pass.

According to the National Park Service, the military passes cover entrance fees and standard day-use fees on lands managed by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That's national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests and a lot of lakes and boat-friendly water most people never think of as “federal.” The pass admits you plus the people in one private vehicle, or you and three adults where fees are charged per person.

How to get it

• In person: pick one up free at many parks and federal recreation sites. Veterans bring one of four IDs: a DoD ID card, a Veteran Health Identification Card, the VA's digital Veteran ID Card, or a state driver's license or ID with a veteran designation.
• Online: a free digital pass is available through Recreation.gov. A physical card shipped from there costs $7.50.
• By mail: the USGS Store will mail a physical pass for a $10 processing fee. It can take weeks, so don't wait until the week of your trip.

Veterans with a permanent disability may also want to look at the free Access Pass, which the Park Service says can also bring discounts on some extras like camping.

Close to home on the First Coast

If you're around Jacksonville like me, you've got options. Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, including Fort Caroline and Kingsley Plantation, never charges an entrance fee. Down the road in St. Augustine, Castillo de San Marcos normally charges $15 per adult, and it honors the Military Pass for the passholder and three adult guests. It's a good place to spend an afternoon on a few centuries of military history.

Why I care about this one

I started The Calm Seas Project because I've seen what a day on the water, a trail or a quiet stretch of marsh can do for someone who has been carrying a lot. None of it fixes everything. But getting outside with people who understand you is one of the simplest things a veteran can do for his or her head, and this pass takes cost off the list of excuses.

So here's my ask for Veterans Day: grab your pass, then grab a buddy you haven't seen in a while and go somewhere green or blue. If you already have one, tell another veteran about it. That might be the best thank-you we can give each other.

Semper Fi.

Sources: National Park Service: Free Entrance for Current Military, Veterans, and Gold Star Families · National Park Service: Entrance Passes and 2026 Free Entrance Days · U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Fee-Free Day, Veterans Day · National Park Service: Timucuan Preserve Fees · National Park Service: Castillo de San Marcos Fees & Passes

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

A lot of student veterans skip the FAFSA. The thinking goes something like this: "I have the GI Bill, so I'm covered." Sometimes that's true. Often it isn't, and the only way to find out is to file. After the Marine Corps, I enrolled at the University of Alabama, earned a degree in operations management with a minor in supply chain management, and then finished an accelerated master's in operations management. If there's one paperwork habit I'd push on any veteran starting school, it's filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid every year.

This post covers why the FAFSA matters even with VA benefits, how veteran status changes the form, what a Pell Grant is worth right now, and a few mistakes to avoid.

Why file if you already have the GI Bill?

VA education benefits and federal student aid are separate programs, and in most cases you can use both. The FAFSA is the application for federal grants, work-study, and loans, and many states and schools also use it to award their own aid. Depending on your school, your benefit, and how many months of entitlement you have left, the GI Bill may not cover everything: books, a summer term, a semester after your entitlement runs out, or the gap at a school where tuition is higher than what the VA pays. Grant money can fill some of those holes, and unlike a loan, it doesn't have to be paid back.

It also matters for planning. If you're thinking about a master's degree after your bachelor's, every month of entitlement you save on the front end is a month you can use later. I wrote more about that in Making 36 Months Count.

Veterans file as independent students

This is the part a lot of people don't know. On the FAFSA, a veteran of the U.S. armed forces is considered an independent student, which means you don't report your parents' income or assets. For FAFSA purposes, that generally means you served on active duty, including basic training, and were released under conditions other than dishonorable. Certain Guard and Reserve members called to federal active duty for purposes other than training also qualify. VA's own FAFSA and VA education benefits guide walks through the definition.

For a lot of veterans, independent status changes the math. Your aid is based on your own finances, not your parents', and if your income dropped after you got out, you may qualify for more than you expect.

What a Pell Grant is worth right now

The Federal Pell Grant is the main federal grant for undergraduates with financial need. According to Federal Student Aid, the maximum Pell Grant for the 2026–27 award year is $7,395, and the 2027–28 maximum will be announced in early 2027. A few things to know:

• It's for undergraduates. Pell is generally for students working on a first bachelor's degree, so use it while you're in that stage.
• There's a lifetime limit. You can receive Pell for up to the equivalent of 12 full-time semesters, per the Department of Education's 2026–27 Pell Grant guidance.
• Your award depends on need and enrollment. The amount is based on your Student Aid Index, your school's cost of attendance, and whether you're full time or part time.

Don't list your GI Bill as income

One common mistake can cost you aid. VA education benefits, including the GI Bill and Chapter 31 Veteran Readiness and Employment, are treated as resources, not income, so they don't belong in the income section of the FAFSA. VA's guide is direct about it: listing them as income can reduce your need-based aid. If you're not sure how to answer a question, your school's financial aid office can tell you.

The flip side is that your last year of military pay may make your income look higher than it is now. If your finances changed a lot after you separated, ask the financial aid office about a special circumstances review. Schools can adjust some figures when your situation has changed.

File early, every year

The 2027–28 FAFSA opened on October 1, 2026, and covers the 2027–28 school year. The federal deadline is June 30, 2028, but state and school aid can have much earlier deadlines, and some is first come, first served. Filing in the fall is the safest move. You file a new FAFSA for each school year, so put a reminder on your calendar every October. You can start at StudentAid.gov.

Pair the money with experience

Financial aid gets you through school. Experience gets you hired after it. My core advice to student veterans is to build your resume in college through internships and student worker programs, because that experience can be just as valuable as your classes when it's time to land a job after graduation. The FAFSA is also how you apply for Federal Work-Study, and the VA has its own work-study program for students using VA education benefits. A campus job that teaches you something is a resume line and a paycheck at the same time.

The bottom line

Don't assume the GI Bill makes the FAFSA pointless. File as an independent student, keep your VA education benefits off the income lines, file early every year, and use whatever aid you get to buy yourself time for internships and real work experience. It's one form, and it can be worth thousands of dollars.

Semper Fi,
Ryan Gunning

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate in operations management, and founder of The Calm Seas Project. More in Veteran Transition.

Today marks 83 years since the Paramarines came ashore on Choiseul, a raid I wrote about last week. That raid was the head fake. The real move came four days later. On November 1, 1943, the 3d Marine Division landed at Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville, the largest island in the Solomons. This Sunday marks 83 years, and it's one of my favorite stories in Marine Corps history, partly because some of the heroes that day had four legs.

Why Bougainville

The Marine Corps History Division describes Bougainville as roughly 125 miles long and about 30 miles wide on average. It had room for fleet units and aircraft, and taking it would help contain the big Japanese base at Rabaul and neutralize the one at Truk. Bougainville was also the 3d Marine Division's first combat assignment.

A rough morning at Cape Torokina

The History Division's account of the landing reads like a lesson in how plans meet reality. Marines were up before 0400. At 0710 the first landing craft pulled away for a 5,000-yard run across the bay, carrying almost 7,500 Marines toward 12 color-coded beaches: eleven stretching west from Cape Torokina, and one on Puruata Island just offshore. The first wave touched ground at 0726, four minutes ahead of H-Hour.

Then the trouble started. A high surf tossed the boats around, pushing them onto the wrong beaches and into each other. By mid-morning, 64 LCVPs and 22 LCMs were wrecked on the sand, and three beaches had to be abandoned. On the left, the 9th Marines came ashore unopposed. On the right, the 3d Marines ran into a crossfire, and a single 75mm gun on Cape Torokina smashed 14 boats. One company landed in the middle of another battalion's zone and had to run through swamp to reach its own flank. When the battalion commander asked where they had been, the company commander pointed back at the cape: “Ask the Navy!”

The Devil Dogs on the beach

Bougainville was also the first combat test for Marine war dogs. The 1st Marine War Dog Platoon, 24 dogs and 55 Marines, went in with the 2d Raider Regiment. According to the Camp Lejeune base paper in March 1944, a Doberman named Andy led a Raider company up the trail to a key roadblock and alerted on three snipers along the way. A German shepherd named Caesar became the only link between a cut-off company and its battalion command post, making nine round trips totaling 31 miles, two of them under fire. He was wounded on the second day and recovered.

The regiment's commander wrote that the platoon had “proven itself to be an unqualified success.” Writing in Naval History, a retired Marine officer noted that no dog patrols on Bougainville were ever ambushed.

Why it stays with me

I served from 2014 to 2018 as an Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist, so the part about the surf gets me every time. Picture 86 wrecked landing craft on the beach and everything that was supposed to come off them. Getting Marines and supplies to the right place is half the fight, and on Bougainville the ocean had a vote.

The other detail I love is in that same Naval History piece. The most universal gift the dogs gave was sleep. With a dog on watch, a Marine could close his eyes for a few minutes even with the enemy close by. Anyone who's been in the field knows what that's worth. Rest is part of readiness, and it's something I think about a lot with the veterans we host through The Calm Seas Project. Sometimes the best thing you can give someone is a safe place to finally exhale.

The 3d Marine Division was relieved by Army units in January 1944 so it could get ready for Guam. So this Sunday, if you've got a dog at your feet, give them an extra scratch for Andy, Caesar and the rest of that first platoon. And if you served with the 3d Marine Division, I'd love to hear your stories.

Semper Fi.

Sources: Marine Corps History Division: Top of the Ladder, Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons · Marine Corps History Division: Bougainville and the Northern Solomons · Marine Corps History Division: The 3d Marine Division and Its Regiments · Camp Lejeune Globe, March 29, 1944 (DVIDS): Marine War Dogs Do Real Job · Naval History Magazine: Marine's Best Friend

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Eleven days from today, seven veterans from every branch arrive in Jacksonville for The Calm Seas Project's Veteran Wellness Retreat, November 6 to 8, 2026. The weekend is built around guided charter fishing, but the schedule also has a sound bath and breathwork, group meals, an Airbnb stay we all share, and a virtual wellness session. Of everything on that list, the sound bath gets the most raised eyebrows. So here's Ryan Gunning's plain-English take on what it is, why it's there, and what to expect if you've never done one.

What a sound bath actually is

Nobody gets wet. A sound bath is a guided session where you sit or lie down, get comfortable, and listen while instruments like singing bowls, gongs or chimes are played slowly around the room. Your only job is to stay still and let the sound do the work. There's nothing to learn, nothing to perform, and nobody grading you. If you fall asleep, that's allowed.

For a lot of Marines and soldiers, that's the hard part. We were trained to stay switched on. Lying on a mat doing nothing on purpose can feel strange the first time. That's normal, and it's kind of the point.

What the research says

The research on sound baths is early, and I'm not going to oversell it. The study people cite most is a 2017 observational study in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. Sixty-two adults filled out questionnaires before and after a singing bowl meditation. Afterward they reported significantly less tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood. The biggest drop in tension was among people who had never tried it before.

That study had no control group and it didn't look at veterans specifically, so it's a reason to be curious, not proof of anything. A sound bath isn't treatment and it doesn't replace real care. What it does give us is an easy, low-pressure way to slow down together, and on a weekend like this, slowing down is half the mission.

Why it pairs with breathwork and the water

I wrote about breathwork for veterans last week. The two go together. Breathwork gives you something to do with your body, and the sound bath gives you permission to stop doing anything at all. Put them next to a day of fishing, a shared meal and a house full of people who get it, and you have the whole idea behind Calm Seas: more than fishing.

The Calm Seas Project started as an idea among friends on a fishing trip. The best conversations we had happened when nobody was in a hurry, and that's the feeling we're trying to build into every part of the weekend.

What I'd tell a first-timer

• Come as you are. Comfortable clothes, no special gear. If you're packing for the weekend, my packing list covers the rest.
• You're in control. Sit up, lie down, keep your eyes open, step out if you need to. Nobody will think twice.
• Don't chase a feeling. Some guys feel relaxed, some feel restless, some just feel tired. All of it counts.
• Try the breathing first. A few slow breaths before the session starts makes it easier to settle in.

How you can help

The Calm Seas Project raised more than $40,000 in its first four months, and that support is what puts veterans and first responders on the water. If you want to back the Jacksonville retreat or point a veteran our way, start at calmseasproject.org, read why I started The Calm Seas Project, and follow along on Instagram and Facebook at calmseasproject.

If you or a veteran you know is struggling right now, don't wait for a trip. Call or text 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, any time, day or night.

Sources: Goldsby et al., J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med (2017) · Veterans Crisis Line · The Calm Seas Project

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

This blog series is called Mail Call for a reason. Ask almost anyone who has served what they remember about time away from home, and somewhere in the answer is the moment the mail showed up. A name gets called, a box gets passed down the line, and for a few minutes nobody is thinking about the job. They're thinking about home.

I've been thinking about that a lot this week, because the holiday mail window for troops overseas opens up sooner than most people realize. If you have a Marine, sailor, soldier, airman or guardian stationed abroad or deployed, the first deadline is about a week away.

The dates to know

The U.S. Postal Service publishes recommended send-by dates for mail headed to military and diplomatic addresses (APO, FPO and DPO) for expected delivery before December 25. For 2026, they are:

• Wednesday, November 4: USPS Ground Advantage, the economy option for packages.
• Wednesday, December 9: First-Class Mail and Priority Mail.
• Wednesday, December 16: Priority Mail Express Military Service, where it's offered. USPS lists it as not available for APO/FPO/DPO ZIP codes starting with 093.

Those dates are the same across every military ZIP group USPS lists. They're recommendations, not guarantees, and USPS notes that actual delivery can vary. My advice is simple: treat the earliest date as the real one. If you've already got the gift, get it in the box now.

A few things that make it easier

According to the USPS military mail page, care packages to APO, FPO and DPO addresses ship at domestic prices, even though they're going overseas. USPS also offers free APO/FPO Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Boxes that you can order online from The Postal Store and have delivered to your door.

Overseas military mail often needs a customs form, and the rules on what you can send depend on the destination. USPS points senders to its APO/FPO/DPO restrictions lookup tool, and its Click-N-Ship service will flag some restrictions and tell you which customs forms you need. One example USPS calls out: you can't ship hand sanitizer or flammable sanitizing wipes overseas. Packages going to a DPO address also have size limits of 27 inches long by 14 inches wide by 14 inches high. If you're unsure, ask at the counter or check the official pages linked below before you seal it up.

What actually goes in the box

This is the part I'd put the most thought into. The snacks and socks are great, and nobody ever turns down good coffee. But what people hold on to is the stuff that only you could have sent: a handwritten letter, a few printed photos, a drawing from a kid, a note from the friends they grew up with. The care package is really just a way to deliver the message that someone back home is thinking about them.

And don't sweat it if a big package isn't in the budget. A card counts. A letter counts. First-Class Mail has until December 9, so there's still plenty of time to write one.

Why I still care about this

I served in the Marine Corps from 2014 to 2018, and the Marines I served with are a big part of why I started The Calm Seas Project. What I've learned since getting out is that the feeling behind mail call never really goes away. It's the same thing that makes a phone call from an old friend land so hard, years later. Somebody remembered you.

So here's my ask for this week. If you know someone serving overseas, put a note on your calendar for November 4 and get something in the mail. If you're a veteran, think about the people who did that for you, and maybe send them a thank-you of your own. It doesn't take much to make somebody's day a long way from home.

Semper Fi.

Sources: USPS: 2026 Holiday Shipping Deadlines · USPS: Military & Diplomatic Mail · USPS Newsroom: Postal Service Recommends 2026 Holiday Mailing and Shipping Dates

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Right now, on the other side of the world, roughly 56,000 service members are in the middle of one of the biggest training exercises in the Pacific. Keen Sword 27 opened on October 19 with a ceremony on Ishigaki Island, Japan's westernmost point, and it runs through October 29. I've been following it this week, and I wanted to share why it caught my attention.

The basics

Keen Sword is a biennial field training exercise between the U.S. military and the Japan Self-Defense Forces, and this is its 18th iteration. The official release puts participation at about 45,000 Japanese personnel and 11,000 U.S. service members (the Associated Press reported about 12,000 Americans). Forces from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Philippines are taking part, with the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom attending as observers. According to the AP, citing Japan's Joint Staff, five of those nations are taking part for the first time: France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Philippines.

U.S. Pacific Command says the training is spread across Okinawa, the Sakashima Islands, Tanegashima, the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the surrounding waters and airspace. The training list itself is what jumped out at me: air and missile defense, facility protection and repair, logistics and resupply, casualty evacuation, and maritime operations.

The part that doesn't make the highlight reel

When people picture a big exercise, they picture the hardware. I get it. But look at that list again. Repairing facilities. Resupply. Getting the wounded out. That's the work that decides whether everything else can keep going.

I served in the Marine Corps from 2014 to 2018 as an Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist. Our whole job was getting supplies to people who needed them, often to places a truck couldn't easily reach. You learn fast that the best plan in the world falls apart if the water, fuel, ammo and medical supplies don't show up. Spread that across a chain of islands, with nine countries working side by side, and it gets a lot harder. Exercises like this are where you find the gaps before they matter.

Training as one team

At the opening ceremony, the Marine lieutenant general serving as deputy commander of U.S. Pacific Command closed his keynote simply: “Keep drilling, keep learning and remain ready, together.” Japan's joint operations commander told the troops in formation that they were “under different national flags and represent different cultures, yet we share the same fundamentals.”

That stuck with me. Working with another country's forces means different radios, different procedures, and sometimes a different language. Drilling together ahead of time is how you make sure those differences don't cost you when it counts. Some of the best lessons I picked up in uniform came from working alongside people who did things differently than I was taught.

Why I keep an eye on this

A lot of the veterans I talk with through The Calm Seas Project still follow the news out of Okinawa, Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton, because we know the kind of Marines who are out there. Somewhere in this exercise is a corpsman running casualty evacuation drills one more time, a young Marine standing a cold watch on an island far from home, and a logistics Marine making sure the pallets land where they're supposed to. They won't make the headlines, but they're the reason the whole thing works.

If you know someone out there for Keen Sword, send them a note this week. If you did your time on Okinawa, I'd love to hear your stories. And to every Marine and sailor training in the Pacific right now: keep drilling.

Semper Fi.

Sources: Marines.mil: Exercise Keen Sword 2027 Commences in Japan · U.S. Pacific Command: Deputy commander visits Japan, highlights combined readiness · AP News: Japan, US kick off major joint drills focusing on southern islands

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

On Tuesday, November 10, Marines everywhere will cut a cake for the Corps' 251st birthday. November 10 is also the day Corporal Jason Dunham was born, in 1981, in Scio, New York. This week's American Valor is his story.

From Scio to the infantry

Dunham graduated from Scio Central School in 2000 and left for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island that July. His first assignment was with Marine Corps Security Forces at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, not far from where I live in Jacksonville. He then moved to the infantry and joined Company K, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, out of Twentynine Palms, California, deploying with them to Iraq in early 2004 (Marine Corps History Division).

April 14, 2004

Dunham was a rifle squad leader with 4th Platoon, Company K, on a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, near the Syrian border, when his squad heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire about two kilometers to the west. His battalion commander's convoy had been ambushed. Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team toward the fight, took fire, dismounted, and led a fire team on foot several blocks south of the convoy. There they found seven Iraqi vehicles trying to leave in a column and stopped them to search for weapons (Medal of Honor citation).

As the Marines approached, an insurgent jumped out and attacked Dunham. Dunham wrestled him to the ground, and during the struggle he saw the man release a grenade. He shouted a warning to his Marines. In the words of his citation, "aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast." He saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines (citation, Headquarters Marine Corps).

Dunham died of his wounds eight days later, on April 22, 2004, at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. He was 22. He was laid to rest in his hometown at Fairlawn Cemetery (Marine Corps History Division).

The Medal of Honor

On November 10, 2006, which would have been his 25th birthday and the Marine Corps' birthday, it was announced at the dedication of the National Museum of the Marine Corps that Dunham would receive the Medal of Honor. He was the first Marine awarded the nation's highest military honor since the Vietnam War, and the first Marine recipient for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The medal was presented to his family at the White House on January 11, 2007 (DVIDS; White House archives).

The Navy named a guided-missile destroyer for him. USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109) was christened at Bath Iron Works in Maine in April 2009 and commissioned at Port Everglades, Florida, on November 13, 2010. His dress blues were displayed on the quarterdeck, and his dog tags and Kevlar helmet were placed beneath the ship's mast (Headquarters Marine Corps; DVIDS).

Why this story stays with me

A squad leader's whole job is his Marines. Dunham had a split second, and he spent it shouting a warning and putting himself between that grenade and the men he was responsible for. When I think about what leadership at the small-unit level really means, I think about Karabilah. This November 10, when the cake gets cut, it's worth remembering that one of our own shares the day.

About the author

Ryan Gunning is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran in Jacksonville, Florida, and the founder of The Calm Seas Project, which takes veterans and first responders out on the water. American Valor posts every Sunday morning.

Sources: Medal of Honor citation (Headquarters Marine Corps) · Marine Corps History Division · White House archives, January 11, 2007 · DVIDS · USS Jason Dunham commissioning (Headquarters Marine Corps)

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in American Valor.

If you get VA disability compensation or military retirement pay, there's some good news on the way. On October 14, the Social Security Administration announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027, and that same percentage is what VA disability and military retired pay follow. I've had a few buddies ask me what it actually means for their check, so here's the plain version.

The short answer

The increase takes effect December 1, 2026. Because VA pays in arrears, Stars and Stripes reports that most veterans should see it in the payment that lands on December 31 or in early January 2027. You don't have to file anything. The adjustment is applied automatically.

For a sense of scale, Stars and Stripes reported that a veteran rated at 10% with no dependents goes from $180.42 a month to $186.92, and a veteran rated at 100% with no dependents goes from about $3,939 to about $4,080. For military retirees, it works out to $36 more a month for every $1,000 of retired pay.

What it covers

The 3.6% applies across the board on the VA side: regular disability compensation, individual unemployability (TDIU), special monthly compensation, and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for surviving spouses and children. VA also sent out a VetResources bulletin on the 2027 increase the same day the number was announced.

One detail I didn't know until I looked into it: military retired pay and Social Security adjust automatically under existing law, but VA disability compensation doesn't. Congress passes a cost-of-living bill every year that tells VA to raise its rates by the same percentage. That's why you'll see early articles say veterans are "on track" for the increase. VA posts the official new rate tables on VA.gov once they're final, so that's the place to check your exact number.

Where the number comes from

The math isn't a judgment call. The law ties the COLA to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, comparing the average for July, August and September with the same stretch from the last year a COLA took effect. This year's 3.6% compares with 2.8% for 2026 and 2.5% for 2025, so it's the biggest bump in a few years. It also tracks with what most of us have felt at the grocery store and the gas pump.

A few things worth doing now

• Check your dependents. If you're rated 30% or higher, VA pays added amounts for a spouse, children and dependent parents, but only if they're on your award. A marriage or a new baby that never got added means money left on the table, and the COLA applies to those amounts too.
• Confirm your direct deposit and address on VA.gov before the holidays, so nothing stalls on December 31.
• Look at your rating letter. If a condition has gotten worse since you were rated, a raise on an outdated rating is still an outdated rating. Talk to an accredited Veterans Service Officer, which costs you nothing.

Why I care about this one

I served in the Marine Corps from 2014 to 2018 as an Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist, and a lot of the veterans I meet through The Calm Seas Project are living on fixed incomes. A few percent doesn't sound like much until rent, insurance and groceries have all gone up first. Knowing when the money shows up, and making sure you're getting everything you've earned, is one less thing to carry. If you've got a buddy who never added their kids to their award or hasn't looked at their rating in years, send them this.

Semper Fi.

Sources: Social Security Administration: 3.6 Percent Benefit Increase for 2027 · Stars and Stripes: Disabled veterans, military retirees on track for 3.6% benefit increase in 2027 · VA VetResources: 2027 VA disability payment increase · VA.gov: Current veterans disability compensation rates

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

After four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, I enrolled at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2018. The move from military life to a college campus is a big one, and I connected with other veterans making the same move. This post is about the student veteran side of my Tuscaloosa years: where to get help at Alabama, the veteran community I was part of, and what I'd tell a Marine starting at the Capstone today. For the bigger picture, see my Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa page and my Education page.

Start at Veteran & Military Affairs

If you're a veteran heading to Alabama, your first stop should be the University of Alabama's Office of Veteran & Military Affairs (VMA) in Houser Hall, Suite 3000. According to the UA catalog, the office processes the certifications that have to be filed before your VA education benefits pay out, and you have to register with VMA every semester to start or keep receiving them. It also offers academic, personal and financial referrals, and work-study and tutoring for students who qualify.

A few other resources on campus are worth knowing about, all listed on VMA's healthcare and counseling page:

• VetSuccess on Campus: a full-time VA counselor on campus who can help with benefits, VR&E, career planning and health care enrollment. UA says it is one of only 22 campuses in the nation with an on-campus VA counselor.
• VITAL: the Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership program, which helps student veterans get enrolled and set up with care through the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center.
• A VA satellite clinic at Capital Hall on campus, run with the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center.
• The Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988 and press 1, any time, day or night.

The Campus Veterans Association

The resources matter, but the people matter more. In Tuscaloosa I served as a board member of the University of Alabama Campus Veterans Association. The CVA helps put on community events such as Operation Iron Ruck, a ruck march that brings student veterans and the Tuscaloosa community together. One of the proudest moments of my time with the CVA was seeing the Governor of Alabama proclaim Operation Iron Ruck Day. I wrote about that in Operation Iron Ruck Day in Alabama, and the University covered the event in Building community: Operation Iron Ruck 2025.

Own your benefits

While I was at Alabama, I advocated for student veterans who were not receiving the educational benefits they had earned. The UA catalog is direct about this: VA education benefits belong to the student, and it's the student's responsibility to advocate for, manage and document them. Keep copies of everything, check your certification every term, and go to VMA early when something looks wrong. If you're planning both a bachelor's and a master's, read Making 36 Months Count, where I walk through stretching GI Bill entitlement.

Community and the classroom

I studied operations management with a minor in supply chain management, then finished an accelerated master's in operations management in June 2025. I was named to the President's List four times and the Dean's List three times, and every term is listed with sources in my University of Alabama academic honors. The University also recognized my degree in Ryan Gunning of Tuscaloosa Awarded Degree from UA on MeritPages.

My advice for Marines starting at Alabama

1. Visit VMA before your first semester and register with them every term after that.
2. Find the veteran community early. Go to a Campus Veterans Association meeting or event in your first few weeks.
3. Get set up with VA health care through VITAL or VetSuccess on Campus, even if you feel fine right now.
4. Build your resume while you study with internships and student worker jobs. I wrote more in From the Marine Corps to College.
5. Give back. Help the veteran who arrives a semester after you.

Today I live in Jacksonville, FL, where I run The Calm Seas Project for veterans and first responders. The lesson I took from Tuscaloosa is the same one behind that work: veterans do best when we stay connected. If you're a Marine or veteran thinking about the University of Alabama, I hope this helps. Roll Tide.

Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa → Education About Ryan Gunning

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

Today is October 23, the anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing, and I've been thinking about a group of Marines who were at sea that same morning, headed toward Lebanon. Within 48 hours they were landing on a different island entirely. Sunday marks 43 years since Operation Urgent Fury, and the 22d Marine Amphibious Unit's part in it is one of my favorite examples of what "ready" really means.

A change of course

The 22d MAU was built around Battalion Landing Team 2/8, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 and MAU Service Support Group 22. They embarked at Morehead City, North Carolina, on October 17, 1983, aboard five Navy amphibious ships, USS Guam, Trenton, Fort Snelling, Manitowoc and Barnstable County, bound for a peacekeeping rotation in Beirut. According to the Marine Corps Association's Leatherneck, the ships were ordered to change course late on October 20, and at 10 p.m. on the 22nd the MAU was told to make for Grenada. The reason was concern for the safety of roughly 600 American medical students and other foreigners on the island after a violent coup there.

The plan gave them about a day to get ready. The Marines would take Pearls Airport and the nearby town of Grenville on the island's northeast coast, with H-hour set for 5 a.m. on October 25.

Plans change, Marines adapt

The original idea was a dawn landing by helicopter and amphibious tractor at the same time. Then the surf report came in: Navy SEALs scouting the beaches said amphibious tractors "might land with great difficulty and other landing craft not at all." So the plan changed. Two rifle companies would go in by helicopter instead.

Shortly before sunrise, CH-46 Sea Knights escorted by AH-1 Cobras put Company E down near Pearls. Antiaircraft guns in the hills fired on a follow-on wave and were quickly silenced by the Cobras. Company E held the airport by about 7:30 a.m., and Company F secured Grenville by about 6:30 a.m. Locals pointed the Marines to weapons caches and helped them spot soldiers who had swapped their uniforms for civilian clothes.

The day wasn't free. Marine Cobras sent south to support Army Rangers near Point Salines took heavy fire, and two were shot down. Three Marine aviators were killed. One received the Navy Cross and two received the Silver Star, all posthumously. A CH-46 crew flew into that fire to pull out a wounded pilot.

Turning the whole MAU around overnight

What gets me is what happened next. Company G, still aboard ship, got a new mission that evening: land at Grand Mal Bay on the west coast and relieve a SEAL team pinned down at the governor-general's residence in St. George's. Amphibious vehicles came ashore in the dark and had a beachhead by 7 p.m. Tanks and heavy gear followed through the night. Helicopters moved Company F around the island before dawn. By the next morning the Marines had reached the residence, relieved the SEALs, and taken Fort Frederick without a fight. The battalion even sent its artillery battery ashore as a provisional infantry company when it needed more riflemen.

On November 1 they did it again, landing on the nearby island of Carriacou by air and sea. It was taken without a shot fired. The Marine Corps History Division's account lays out the whole sequence, and the Joint Chiefs' official history notes that the operation, along with Beirut that same month, added momentum to reforms in how the services fight together.

Why it sticks with me

I spent my enlistment, 2014 to 2018, as an Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist. A lot of that job is planning for a drop that may not happen the way you drew it up. Weather changes. A drop zone moves. The 22d MAU's week in Grenada is the best example I know of what we were trained to do: write the plan, expect it to break, and keep moving anyway. They left North Carolina for one mission, changed course for another, and did it while hearing the news from Beirut about Marines they knew.

If you served with someone from 2/8 or HMM-261, this weekend is a good excuse to send that text.

Semper Fi.

Sources: Marine Corps History and Museums Division, U.S. Marines in Grenada, 1983 (PDF) · Leatherneck (Marine Corps Association): Grenada, 1983, Operation Urgent Fury · Joint History Office, Operation Urgent Fury (PDF)

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Two weeks from today, seven veterans from every branch arrive in Jacksonville for The Calm Seas Project's Veteran Wellness Retreat, November 6 to 8, 2026. Most people hear "veterans fishing weekend" and picture rods and coolers, and there will be plenty of both. But one of the simplest things on our schedule is also one I get asked about the most: breathwork.

Why breathing is on the schedule

In the Marine Corps you learn quickly that your breath is tied to everything else: your heart rate, your focus, how steady your hands are. Out of uniform, a lot of us forget that lesson and spend our days running hot. The VA's own Whole Health program puts it plainly: when breathing becomes shallow and fast, the nervous system shifts toward "fight or flight" instead of "rest and digest," and slow, relaxed breathing can help the body and mind calm down, help with stress, and help with sleep.

That's the whole idea behind our breathwork session. No special gear, no experience needed, nothing you have to believe in. Just a few minutes of slowing down with people who've been where you've been.

What the research says

This isn't just a feel-good add-on. Researchers have studied breathing-based practices with veterans specifically:

• A 2014 randomized study in the Journal of Traumatic Stress assigned 21 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans either to a breathing-based meditation program (Sudarshan Kriya yoga) or to a waitlist. The breathing group showed reductions in PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and respiration rate, and the researchers followed up a month and a year later.
• A 2022 trial in BMJ Open, run at a VA outpatient center with 85 veterans, compared the same breathing practice with cognitive processing therapy, a standard first-line PTSD treatment. The breathing program was found to be non-inferior for PTSD symptoms at the end of treatment, one month, and one year, and the authors said it merits further consideration.

Those are small studies, and the researchers are careful about what they claim, so I will be too. Breathwork is not a replacement for real care. What it is: a free tool you can carry anywhere, backed by enough evidence that the VA teaches it.

What it looks like in Jacksonville

The retreat weekend pairs guided charter fishing with a sound bath and breathwork, group meals, and a virtual wellness session. The breathwork is short and easy. If you've never done it, the VA's starting point is a good one: sit or lie down, put one hand on your belly and one on your chest, and breathe slowly enough that the belly hand moves more. Try breathing in for a count of two and out for a count of three, and adjust until it feels comfortable. Five to ten minutes is plenty to start.

Then we get back on the water, which is its own kind of breathing room.

How you can help

The Calm Seas Project raised more than $40,000 in its first four months, and that support is what puts veterans and first responders on the water. If you want to support the Jacksonville retreat, or point a veteran our way, start at calmseasproject.org and follow along on Instagram and Facebook at calmseasproject.

If you or a veteran you know is struggling right now, don't wait for a trip. Call or text 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, any time, day or night.

Sources: Seppälä et al., Journal of Traumatic Stress (2014) · Bayley et al., BMJ Open (2022) · VA Whole Health, "Breathing and Health" · VA Whole Health Library: Breathing · Veterans Crisis Line · The Calm Seas Project

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

Tonight, in a handful of Nebraska towns, veterans are getting together for something called a Buddy Check. The Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs keeps a list of them: a VFW post, an American Legion post, a vets club, a park shelter near a veterans memorial garden. Most of them meet on the 22nd of every month. As far as I can tell, there's no big program. The point is showing up for each other.

I came across that list this week and it stuck with me, because it's about the simplest idea there is, and it's still one of the easiest things to let slide.

What a buddy check actually is

VA's "Don't Wait. Reach Out." campaign describes a buddy check as a simple act of outreach from one veteran to another: "a text, a call, an offer to meet up." Congress created an annual Veteran Buddy Check Week, which ran September 21 to 25 this year, but VA is clear that you don't need to wait for a special week, or for a crisis, to check in. You also don't need to have all the answers.

If you're the type who stares at your phone trying to figure out what to say, VA even offers a few openers: "Just wanted to check in." "How's it been going lately?" "Do you need anything?" That's it. No speech required.

Why it matters to me

I served in the Marine Corps from 2014 to 2018 as an Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist. In the Corps you're almost never on your own. Someone always knows where you are, how you're doing, and whether you showed up. When you get out, that structure goes away pretty much overnight. The people who knew you best end up scattered across the country, busy with new jobs, families and their own transitions. Nobody's doing a head count anymore.

It's easy to think of a Marine you served with and tell yourself you'll call him this weekend. Then the weekend comes and goes. In my experience, the call is rarely as awkward as you expect, and it usually means more to both people than either one will say out loud.

The water helps

That's a big part of why The Calm Seas Project exists. I started it in Jacksonville with friends from college who supported veterans and wanted to keep giving back. A day of fishing is really just a buddy check with more time built in. Nobody has to sit across a table and talk about their feelings. The lines are out, the boat's rocking a little, and the conversation comes when it comes. Our next trip is the veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville, Nov. 6 to 8.

Make one call this week

My ask is small. Pick one person you served with who you haven't talked to in a while, and send a text tonight. If you want to get better at it, VA's buddy check page has a short peer wellness training video and a list of signs that someone may be struggling, like trouble sleeping, more anger or hopelessness, or using alcohol or drugs in unhealthy ways.

If a conversation turns serious, you don't have to handle it alone. The Veterans Crisis Line is free, confidential and open 24/7: dial 988 then press 1, text 838255, or chat online. You don't have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to reach it.

One more thing from VA's page that I appreciate: checking in goes both ways. Give yourself the same care you'd give a buddy.

Semper Fi.

Sources: VA, Don't Wait. Reach Out.: For Veterans Helping Veterans (Buddy Check) · Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs: Buddy Check · Veterans Crisis Line

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

This week's Soldier of Fortune goes back to World War II. Before he built the biggest retailer on the planet, Sam Walton was a young Army officer who knew he wanted to work for himself when he got out.

From ROTC to the Army

Samuel Moore Walton was born on March 29, 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and grew up in small towns in Missouri during the Great Depression. He was an ROTC cadet at the University of Missouri, where he earned an economics degree in 1940, and he went straight into a management trainee job at J.C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa.

He was inducted into the U.S. Army on July 16, 1942. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, he served stateside in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the war, and most biographies say he reached the rank of captain. He married Helen Robson in 1943, and he was discharged in 1945. Walton later said it was while serving in the Army that he decided he wanted to go into retailing and go into business for himself.

One store, bought with Army savings

Walton didn't start big. He used a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and about $5,000 he'd saved during his time in the Army to buy a Ben Franklin variety store franchise in Newport, Arkansas, which opened on September 1, 1945. He grew its sales from $80,000 to $225,000 in three years. Then the landlord refused to renew the lease so he could hand the store to his own son.

Walton took the loss as a lesson and started over. On May 9, 1950, he opened Walton's 5&10 on the downtown square in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was one of the first self-service variety stores in the country. That building is now the Walmart Museum, which still has the door from his Newport store on display.

Walmart and Sam's Club

He opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, at age 44, and co-founded the company with his brother James "Bud" Walton. Sam's Club followed in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. His idea was simple: if a small-town store offered prices as good as a city store four hours away, people would shop at home. In his autobiography, Sam Walton: Made in America, he explained that cutting prices could raise sales enough to earn more on volume than on markup.

In March 1992, Walton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Bentonville, which is when the photo above was taken. He died on April 5, 1992, at age 74. Even as one of the richest people in the country, he kept driving an old pickup truck, which is now on display at the museum.

The company he left behind hires veterans

Walton's company has kept a strong connection to the military. On Memorial Day 2013, Walmart launched its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, which guaranteed a job offer to eligible, honorably discharged veterans. In July 2020, the company announced it had passed its goal of 250,000 veteran hires, with more than 265,000 veterans hired and more than 44,000 of them promoted.

What veterans can take from it

• Save while you serve. Walton's first store was paid for partly with money he put away in uniform. A little discipline with a paycheck can become a down payment on your future.
• Setbacks are training. He lost a profitable store over a lease and called it a lesson, not a defeat. Then he did it again, better, in a new town.
• Serve the customer like it's the mission. Keep the shelves stocked, keep prices fair, and keep showing up. That works in a small town or across the world.

You don't need to start with a big idea. Walton started with one store and a plan he figured out while he was still in the Army.

Know a veteran founder or veteran-owned business I should feature next? Let me know.

Sources: Sam Walton, Walmart · Sam Walton, Encyclopedia of Arkansas · Sam Walton, Wikipedia · Walmart Museum, Encyclopedia of Arkansas · Walmart, July 2020

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Soldier of Fortune.

A resume is where a lot of veterans undersell themselves. Four years of real responsibility can shrink into a list of acronyms that a civilian recruiter skims past in a few seconds. After the Marine Corps, I enrolled at the University of Alabama, earned a degree in operations management with a minor in supply chain management, and then finished an accelerated master's in operations management. Along the way I learned that the work you did in uniform only helps you if you can explain it in the language of the job you want.

This post is about that translation step: the free tools that help, the records you already have, and how to turn military duties into lines a hiring manager understands.

Start with the records you already have

You don't have to rebuild your service history from memory. Two documents do most of the work:

• Your Joint Services Transcript (JST). The JST lists your military training and occupational experience along with American Council on Education credit recommendations. It's free to download, and many schools use it to award college credit, so it's worth pulling before you apply anywhere.
• Your Verification of Military Experience and Training (VMET), DD Form 2586. The VMET is available through the DoD Transition Assistance Program site and summarizes your experience and training in a format meant to help you write a resume and apply for jobs.

Keep your schools, qualifications, and awards in front of you while you write. Specific courses and certifications are far more convincing than "various training."

Use a crosswalk to find the civilian words

The Department of Labor's O*NET program maintains a Military Crosswalk where you can enter your MOS code and see related civilian occupations. Its companion site, My Next Move for Veterans, does the same thing in a simpler format and shows the tasks, skills, and outlook for each matching career.

The value isn't just the job titles. Read the task lists for the civilian roles that interest you and borrow their vocabulary. If a posting talks about "quality control," "inventory accuracy," or "process improvement," and you did that work, use those words instead of the military ones.

My primary MOS was 0451, Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist. On paper that sounds like it has nothing to do with operations or supply chain. In practice, a parachute rigger's job is built around inspection, packing to exact standards, tracking equipment, and getting the right gear to the right place on time. That's the kind of connection a crosswalk helps you spot.

Translate duties into results

Most military evaluations describe duties. Civilian resumes are read for results. A simple way to rewrite a line is to answer three questions: what did you do, how big was it, and what changed because of it?

• Replace jargon with plain terms. "NCOIC" becomes "supervisor" or "team lead." A unit name means little to most recruiters; the size of the team and the value of the equipment you were responsible for means a lot.
• Add numbers wherever you honestly can. How many people you led, how many items you inspected or tracked, how many hours of training you ran, how often your work passed inspection.
• Match the posting. Write a version of your resume for each type of job you apply to, and lead with the experience that posting asks for.
• Keep it readable. One or two pages, clean formatting, and a short summary at the top that says what you're looking for in civilian terms.

Don't stop at military experience

This is where my advice to student veterans comes in. Your service is a strong foundation, but employers also want to see that you can do the job in a civilian setting. The best way to show that is to build your resume while you're in school through internships and student worker programs. That experience can be just as valuable as your classes when it's time to land a job after graduation.

The VA's work-study program is one option. If you're using an approved VA education benefit and enrolled at least 75% of full time, you can get paid for a part-time job tied to VA and veteran services, at places like an approved campus office or a VA facility. It pays the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is greater. Your campus career center is another resource, and most will review a resume for free.

Free help if you want a second set of eyes

• The Transition Assistance Program includes employment workshops focused on resumes and job searches, and veterans can attend after separation too.
• VA careers and employment resources cover career counseling, and Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) can help eligible veterans with job training and placement.
• American Job Centers, listed on CareerOneStop for veterans, offer priority of service to veterans for job search help.

The bottom line

You did real work in uniform. Pull your JST and VMET, use the crosswalk to find the civilian language, rewrite your duties as results, and then add civilian experience through internships and student jobs while you're in school. That combination is what makes a recruiter stop skimming and start reading.

Semper Fi,
Ryan Gunning

Late October on the Marine Corps calendar belongs to Beirut and to the run-up to the birthday, and rightly so. There's another date in there that I think about as a former Marine parachutist. On October 28, 1943, about 700 Marines of the 2d Parachute Battalion came ashore on Choiseul, in the Solomon Islands, for a week-long raid. Next Wednesday marks 83 years.

Paratroopers who came by sea

The Marine Corps started building a parachute program in 1940. By 1943, though, there were far too few transport planes in the entire Marine Corps to jump a regiment into combat, and the 1st Parachute Regiment couldn't make any drops after May of that year. So the battalion did what Marines do: it adapted. It trained hard on assault boats, live-fire and raider-style work, and when the mission came, it went in by ship.

"Strike and move"

The real objective was Bougainville, where Marines would land at Empress Augusta Bay on November 1. Choiseul was the head fake. The battalion's job was to land near the village of Voza, raid along the coast, scout a site for a PT boat base, and make the enemy believe a much bigger force had arrived. The commander's order summed it up: the "basic principle is strike and move; avoid decisive engagement with superior forces."

A few details from the Marine Corps History Division's account that stuck with me:

• The whole force was ashore by 0100 on October 28, landed from four high-speed transports with a destroyer escort.
• Local islanders had already cut a trail inland and helped carry supplies, and an Australian coastwatcher went along to keep that partnership strong.
• The Marines built a dummy supply dump out of empty boxes on a beach two miles north to draw attention, and on October 30 the Navy's South Pacific command announced a paratrooper "invasion" to the press.
• That same day they hit the enemy barge base at Sangigai, destroyed supplies, and captured a chart of minefields off Bougainville. Mines were later laid in the clear channels it revealed, and they eventually sank two Japanese ships.
• On one patrol, Marines set up their 60mm mortars in the sea, with only the top half of the tubes above water, to get a clear shot. That patrol was pulled out under fire by landing craft and Navy PT boats in rain and high seas.

On the night of November 3, the battalion loaded onto landing craft in less than 20 minutes and was back on Vella Lavella by 0800. The History Division puts the cost at 11 Marines killed and 14 wounded.

Why it stays with me

A few months later, the Corps decided it needed those Marines in its new divisions more than it needed a parachute force with no planes. The 1st Parachute Regiment furled its colors on February 29, 1944, and the same recommendation ended the Raider battalions as well. One line in the history jumped out at me: a small cadre was kept to provide an air delivery section for each of the two Marine corps-level headquarters in the Pacific.

Air delivery is what I did. My MOS was 0451, air delivery specialist, and I was also a qualified parachutist, and my last unit was the Marine Raider Regiment at Camp Lejeune. Reading about Choiseul feels a little like finding an old photo of your family you'd never seen. The job and the names changed, but the line runs straight back to them.

What I take from it isn't only the toughness. It's the adaptability. Their plan to jump had been taken off the table, so they trained for the mission they actually had. They leaned on the people who knew the ground, and they got each other off the beach. I see that same spirit in the veterans I spend time with on the water through The Calm Seas Project.

If you have a few minutes on October 28, read the Marine Corps History Division's Silk Chutes and Hard Fighting. It's free online and worth your time.

Semper Fi.

Sources: Marine Corps History Division, Silk Chutes and Hard Fighting: U.S. Marine Corps Parachute Units in World War II (Choiseul) · Silk Chutes and Hard Fighting (disbandment) · Naval History magazine: Raid on Choiseul (Dec. 2018) · National Archives, Prologue: Operation Blissful (Fall 2010)

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Most VA news in October is about big numbers. The item that caught my eye this month is a small, practical one. On October 7, 2026, VA started a pilot that lets veterans set up a VA.gov account in a matter of minutes at six VA medical centers, with VA staff right there to help. One of those six is in Orlando, a couple of hours down the road from us in Jacksonville.

Why the account matters

A VA.gov account is the front door to almost everything. For a lot of veterans, getting through the sign-up is the first wall, especially without a reliable internet connection, or for anyone who has trouble getting around. Once you're in, VA says you can:

• Schedule appointments, at VA and in the community, and find nearby community care.
• Read after-visit summaries and send secure messages to your providers.
• Refill prescriptions.
• Apply for disability compensation and check the status of benefits applications.
• Submit routine benefits like healthcare travel reimbursement.

How the pilot works

VA partnered with the security company CLEAR to put CLEAR pods, the same kind of scanning tech you see at airports, in VA medical centers in Atlanta; Brooklyn, New York; Orlando, Florida; Palo Alto, California; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Washington, D.C.

• Bring: a valid, non-expired government-issued photo ID (driver's license, state ID, or passport), a phone number, and a personal email address.
• At the pod: VA staff help you enter your information, you take a photo, and the account is set up in minutes.
• Afterward: you can set up face ID or another recognition tool to sign in from home in seconds.

It's free and optional. VA says skipping it won't affect your access to benefits or services, your health information stays with VA, and CLEAR doesn't receive it or sell biometric data. VA will decide whether to expand to more facilities based on how the pilot goes. If you aren't near one of the six, the standard sign-up on VA.gov still works.

While you're there, ask about a toxic exposure screening

Under the PACT Act, every veteran enrolled in VA health care gets a toxic exposure screening, with a follow-up at least once every five years. It's a short conversation, usually 5 to 10 minutes, about whether you think you were exposed to things like burn pits and other airborne hazards, Gulf War-related exposures, Agent Orange, radiation, or contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. That last one hits close to home for a lot of Marines. You can ask about it at your next VA appointment, or call your local VA facility and ask for the toxic exposure screening navigator. If you aren't enrolled yet but you're eligible, you can enroll and then get screened.

Why I'm passing it along

Through The Calm Seas Project, I spend a lot of time around veterans on the water, and I've come to believe wellness includes the unglamorous stuff too: being able to message your doctor, refill a prescription, or check on a claim without a fight. Getting logged in is step one. If you've been putting it off, this is a good month to knock it out, and to help a buddy do the same.

If you or someone you served with is having a hard time, the Veterans Crisis Line is there 24/7: dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Semper Fi.

Sources: VA News: VA launches pilot program to speed Veterans' access (Oct. 7, 2026) · VA: The PACT Act and your VA benefits · VA: Toxic exposure screenings

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Sheepshead get most of the attention around the docks this time of year, but they share that structure with another fish I like a lot on the First Coast: the black drum. They're the biggest member of the drum family, they pull hard, and the smaller ones are good eating. Here's how I think about them and the rules to know before you keep one.

Where black drum feed

The FWC species profile describes black drum as an inshore fish of bays, river mouths, and lagoons that feeds on fish and invertebrates, including oysters, mussels, crabs, and shrimp. Around Jacksonville that points you to the same places you'd look for sheepshead: dock and bridge pilings, oyster bars along the marsh, rocky banks near the mouth of the St. Johns, and the Mayport jetties. They're bottom feeders, so keep your bait on the bottom and close to the shell and structure.

Bait and technique

Since drum eat crabs and shellfish, natural bait is the simple answer. Fresh shrimp on a bottom rig works, and pieces of blue crab or clams are good when the bait stealers are thick. Use a sliding sinker or a knocker rig heavy enough to hold in the current, a short leader, and a strong circle or J hook sized to the bait. Drum often pick up a bait and mouth it, so give them a second before you come tight.

FWC rules say you can't use any multiple hook with live or dead natural bait for black drum, and snatching is prohibited. Legal gear is hook and line, cast net, seine, spear, or gig (FWC).

Puppy drum now, big drum later

Smaller "puppy" drum are around all year, and those are the fish that fit the slot. The big ones are a late-winter and spring story. FWC notes that black drum spawn nearshore in winter and early spring and can live 35 years or more. A study of black drum in Northeast Florida found spawning there ran from January through April, and that a recreational fishery for large drum builds in the spring as adults gather in the sounds and passes (Murphy and Taylor, Northeast Gulf Science). The bigger fish are the breeders, so I'd rather get a picture and let them go.

FWC black drum rules

According to the FWC, black drum in Florida's Atlantic and Gulf state waters are open year-round with a slot limit of 14 to 24 inches, and you may keep one fish over 24 inches. The daily bag limit is 5 per harvester, and that can include the one over-slot fish. Special regulations apply in Biscayne National Park, which doesn't affect us up here but is worth knowing if you travel south.

A reminder for this time of year: flounder harvest is closed from October 15 through November 30, so release any flounder that grabs your drum bait. I covered that in my fall fishing post, and the tides post has tips on timing the current around the docks and bridges.

Fish like these are part of what makes a day on the water around here so good, and it's the kind of day The Calm Seas Project wants to share with veterans. Always check current FWC regulations before you keep a fish, since they can change. See you on the water.

Sources: FWC: Black Drum regulations · FWC: Black Drum species profile · Murphy and Taylor, Reproduction and Growth of Black Drum in Northeast Florida

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in First Coast Fishing.

Six days from now, tens of thousands of runners will line up on Route 110 in Arlington, Virginia, for the 51st Marine Corps Marathon. It's Sunday, October 25, 2026, and it's one of my favorite traditions the Corps puts on all year.

The People's Marathon

The Marine Corps Marathon is the third-largest marathon in the United States and the largest in the world that doesn't offer prize money. That's how it earned the nickname "The People's Marathon." Nobody's running for a check. They're running for a buddy, a cause, or to prove something to themselves. Marines run the whole operation, from the water points to the finish line.

Race weekend at a glance

• Expo and packet pickup: October 21 through 24 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
• MCM 8K and Kids Run: Saturday, October 24, in West Potomac Park.
• Race morning: The wheelchair and hand-cycle division starts at 7:05 a.m., duos at 7:07, and the marathon at 7:20, with a March on Colors and the national anthem before the start.
• Roads: Arlington County and D.C. will close a long list of roads over the weekend, so check the traffic alerts before you drive in to cheer.

Why it matters

The course goes through the heart of the nation's capital and finishes near the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington. The Marine handing you your medal could be a lance corporal who volunteered to stand out there all morning. If you're running, thank the Marines on the course. If you're watching, cheer the runners at the back as loud as the ones at the front, because they're out there the longest.

Good luck to everyone toeing the line Sunday. Semper Fi.

Sources: Marine Corps Marathon · Arlington County traffic alert

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

People hear "fishing trip" and picture rods, tackle and a cooler full of fish. That's part of it. But some of the most important hours on a Calm Seas Project trip happen when no one is fishing at all.

Movement, not a workout

On past trips we've started some mornings with a group movement session outside. It's simple stuff: stretching, breathing and easy mobility work on mats. Nobody's keeping score. For a lot of veterans, carrying old injuries and tension from years of service, a slow start does more good than another hard workout.

Time in the water

We also get people into the water, not just onto it. Wading out from a dock into clear, calm water as a group sounds small. It isn't. The water slows everybody down, the conversation changes, and guys who barely said a word at dinner the night before start talking. Some of our guests also try a cold plunge. I wrote about what the research says about cold water and time outside last week.

Always optional

None of this is mandatory. Every piece is an invitation. If someone would rather sit on the dock with a coffee and watch the sunrise, that counts too. Our job is to make space, not to run a program at people.

Eighteen days to Jacksonville

We're 18 days out from our veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville, November 6 to 8, 2026. Expect plenty of time on the water and plenty of time to just breathe. If you want to help make it happen, visit calmseasproject.org.

Sources: The Calm Seas Project · Cold Water, Open Water

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

This week on American Valor, a Marine whose record has never been matched. October 24 marks 111 years since the fight in Haiti that earned Dan Daly his second Medal of Honor. He's the only enlisted Marine ever to receive the nation's highest award twice.

A small man with a big reputation

Daniel Joseph Daly was born in New York on November 11, 1873. He stood about five feet six and weighed around 132 pounds. Before the Marine Corps he was a newsboy with a reputation as a fighter. He enlisted on January 10, 1899, hoping to get into the Spanish-American War, but it ended before he finished training (Marine Corps History Division).

Peking, August 1900

During the Boxer Rebellion, Marines in Peking held a position on the Tartar Wall south of the American Legation. Intense fire had driven them off the wall. Private Daly went back up with his company commander. On August 14 the officer left to bring up reinforcements, and Daly held the bastion by himself, fighting off snipers and repeated assaults until help arrived. That earned him his first Medal of Honor (DOD News).

Haiti, October 24, 1915

Fifteen years later, Gunnery Sergeant Daly was serving with the 15th Company (Mounted), 2nd Marine Regiment, in Haiti. On the night of October 24, his detachment was crossing a river in a deep ravine near Fort Dipitie when roughly 400 Caco fighters opened fire from three sides. The Marines fought their way to higher ground and held it all night. At daybreak Daly helped lead three squads forward in different directions. The attack scattered the enemy and helped take Fort Dipitie. It was his second Medal of Honor (Congressional Medal of Honor Society).

Belleau Wood, June 1918

He wasn't done. As a first sergeant in France, Daly put out a fire in an ammunition dump, single-handedly took an enemy machine-gun position, and brought in wounded under heavy fire. At Belleau Wood, with his Marines pinned down, he's remembered for leaping forward and shouting the most famous battle cry in Corps history: "Come on, you sons of b——, do you want to live forever?" He received the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Service Cross, along with French honors including the Médaille Militaire.

Why this story stays with me

Daly was offered a commission more than once and turned it down. He said he'd rather be an outstanding sergeant than just another officer. He called medals "a lot of foolishness" and hated the fuss. What he cared about was his Marines. That's the standard every NCO in the Corps still gets measured against. He died in 1937, the Navy named a destroyer after him in 1943, and his two Medals of Honor are at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

Sources: Marine Corps History Division · DOD News · Congressional Medal of Honor Society

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in American Valor.

If you played ball in high school or college and you're still wearing the uniform, the Marine Corps wants to hear from you. MARADMIN 479/26 says the Semper Fit Branch is looking for athletes and coaches for the 2027 All-Marine Sports teams, the 2027 Military World Games trial camps, and the Elite Marine Athlete Program.

What's on the 2027 calendar

The season opens with cross country in December 2026 and runs through soccer, rugby, flag football, volleyball, basketball and softball in 2027. The Armed Forces Marathon is scheduled for October 2027 in Washington, D.C., with the Marine Corps as host. The full schedule is on the Armed Forces Sports events calendar, and dates can change.

How to get in

• Get your CO's approval. Every applicant needs it, and commands are asked to endorse Marines who are in a full duty status and who'll represent the Corps well.
• Bring your numbers. Athlete applications include three-rep max deadlift, bench and squat, broad jump, pro-agility, a 40-yard dash, and your three-mile and 880-yard times from your most recent fitness tests.
• Show your history. Include proof of prior competitive experience, whether that's high school, college or beyond, plus any awards.
• Watch the deadline. Athletes apply no later than 30 days before their sport's Armed Forces Championship. Coaches are told to apply now. Marine coaches must be E-6 or above, and civilians can apply as coaches only.

Selected Marines go TAD, and Semper Fit covers travel, lodging, entry fees, uniforms and equipment.

Why it's worth it

Competing for the Corps is one of the best ways to see what you're made of. You train like a professional, you get pushed by the best athletes in the service, and you build the kind of team bonds that stay with you long after the season. If you've got the résumé, take the shot.

Sources: MARADMIN 479/26, Marines.mil · All-Marine Sports, MCCS

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

I live in Jacksonville, FL now, but on fall Saturdays part of me is still in Tuscaloosa. After four years in the U.S. Marine Corps (2014–2018), I spent my college years at The University of Alabama, earning a degree in operations management and then an accelerated master's. Crimson Tide football was part of the rhythm of life in that town. This is my look at the Tide's 2026 season so far, game days at Bryant-Denny, and the ways Alabama honors people who served. For more on my years there, see my Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa page and my recent post, From the Marine Corps to the University of Alabama.

The Crimson Tide's 2026 season so far

Alabama is 5–2 overall and 3–2 in the SEC after seven games, according to the official 2026 schedule and results on RollTide.com. The Tide opened with five wins in a row, then dropped two SEC games in October:

• Sept. 5: East Carolina at home, W 48–10
• Sept. 12: at Kentucky, W 45–17
• Sept. 19: Florida State at home, W 50–36
• Sept. 26: South Carolina at home, W 49–18
• Oct. 3: at Mississippi State, W 56–23
• Oct. 10: Georgia at home, L 17–20
• Oct. 17: at Tennessee, L 10–26

The offense has averaged 39.3 points per game, per Sports-Reference's 2026 Alabama game log. Losing two in a row stings, but if the Marine Corps taught me anything, it's that how a unit responds after a setback says more than the setback itself. There's a lot of football left.

Next up: Homecoming against Texas A&M

The Tide comes home next Saturday, Oct. 24, against Texas A&M at 2:30 p.m. CT (3:30 p.m. ET) at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. It's Homecoming weekend, and Alabama is also recognizing its 2016 SEC championship team, per Alabama Athletics' game-day guide. After an open date, the rest of the regular season runs at LSU on Nov. 7, at Vanderbilt on Nov. 14, Chattanooga at home on Nov. 21, and the Iron Bowl against Auburn in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 28.

Bryant-Denny game days

Every home game this season has drawn a listed crowd of 100,077, according to Alabama's box scores. If you haven't been back in a while, a few things have changed for 2026, per RollTide.com:

• Gates and sections were renumbered. Gates now run clockwise from the Walk of Champions, and sections use three-digit numbers tied to the level. Row and seat numbers didn't change.
• Champions Lane is back outside the northwest gates, opening four hours before kickoff, and its activities are free.
• A veteran-level concessions discount: Yea Alabama veteran-level members get 20 percent off non-alcoholic concessions inside the stadium.

From the operations management side of my brain, moving more than 100,000 people in and out of one stadium on a Saturday is a logistics problem I can respect. Clear gate numbering is the kind of small process fix that makes a big operation run smoother.

Bama Salute: how Alabama honors the military

As a Marine veteran, this is the part of Alabama athletics I'm proudest of. Through its Bama Salute program, Alabama Athletics recognizes active-duty service members and veterans throughout the year:

• Salute of the Game: a service member or veteran is honored at ticketed events, with a recognition before or during the game.
• Pregame flag presentation: at every home football game, the university honors a service member in a flag presentation before the National Anthem, through its Flag Recipient Program.
• Fly a flag over the stadium: people who serve or have served can send an American flag to be flown over Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
• POW/MIA Chair: since November 2017, an empty seat in Section A, Row 59, Seat 1 of the stadium's lower bowl has honored those who have not come home.

Bama Salute is personal for me. In 2024, I was honored at Alabama's Bama Salute military appreciation football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and standing in that stadium as a Marine veteran is something I won't forget.

This season's Bama Salute Military Appreciation Day is Saturday, Nov. 21, against Chattanooga at 1 p.m. CT, which is also Senior Day, per the official game center. If you're a veteran anywhere near Tuscaloosa, that's the one I'd circle.

Beyond the stadium: support for student veterans

The game days are fun, but what matters most to veterans is what happens Monday morning. UA's Office of Veteran & Military Affairs in Houser Hall serves more than 4,100 members of the UA community and was recognized as a 2025 Best for Vets college by Military Times. It offers GI Bill counseling, tutoring, study rooms, and an on-campus VA counselor through VetSuccess on Campus. If you're a Marine thinking about Tuscaloosa, start there. I wrote about my own academic path on my Education page, and you can read more about me on my About page.

Roll Tide from Jacksonville

These days I watch from Jacksonville, where I run The Calm Seas Project, but I'm still proud to be a University of Alabama graduate. Whether you're in Bryant-Denny on Saturday or watching from somewhere far from Tuscaloosa, take a minute to thank the veterans around you. Roll Tide.

Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa → Marine Corps to Alabama Education About Ryan Gunning

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

The Marine Corps is taking applications for the fourth class of its artificial intelligence fellowship, a program that asks Marines to bring a real problem from their own command and build a tool to fix it. Stars and Stripes covered it this week, and the details come from MARADMIN 471/26.

How the fellowship works

It's a five-month program run with faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Fellows mostly work from their home units and travel to Monterey three times. While they're in the program, the fellowship is their primary duty. Each applicant proposes an unclassified project that their command endorses and identifies the data they'll need. To graduate, fellows have to write a publishable research paper.

The program started as a pilot in August 2025. According to the Marine Corps, past projects have tackled cybersecurity testing, maintenance paperwork and mismatches between financial and logistics records. Those aren't flashy problems. They're the ones that eat hours every week in every unit.

Who can apply

Eligible applicants include officers up to O-5, enlisted Marines E-4 through E-8, warrant officers, and civilian employees GS-5 through GS-14. Units cover about $5,000 in travel, and military participants take on a 15-month active-duty service obligation. The Corps usually picks three to eight fellows per class.

Why this one caught my eye

The best fixes in any unit come from the people closest to the problem. Corporals and sergeants know exactly where the friction is, whether it's a form that gets filled out three times or a report nobody trusts. A program that gives an E-4 time and mentorship to fix it is a smart use of talent. If you're still in and you've been complaining about the same broken process for a year, this might be your shot to do something about it.

Sources: Stars and Stripes · MARADMINs, Marines.mil

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Not every Mail Call is about the field. Today's is about family. On October 16, Headquarters Marine Corps released MARADMIN 501/26, which updates how Marines get reimbursed for qualifying adoption expenses. It replaces the old 2018 message and spells out who's eligible, what's covered, and how to file.

The short version

• Who: Active-duty Marines, plus Reserve Marines on active duty for 180 or more consecutive days. Married or single both count. If both parents are in uniform, only one of them can claim the same child.
• How much: Up to $2,000 per child, with a cap of $5,000 per calendar year.
• What's covered: Agency fees (including foreign agencies), placement and counseling fees, legal fees and court costs, certain medical costs, and temporary foster care required before placement.
• What isn't: Travel, plus things like clothing, bedding, toys and books.

Deadlines that matter

The adoption has to be finalized while the Marine is on active duty. The claim is due within two years of finalization. For foreign adoptions, the clock starts when the child's certificate of U.S. citizenship is issued. The child needs to be enrolled in DEERS before you file, and the claim goes up through your chain of command to your servicing admin office. If you're getting out, finish and submit everything before you separate. Once you're a civilian, that window is closed.

Why I'm passing it along

Marines take care of their own, and that includes the families they're building. Adoption is expensive and the paperwork is slow, so a couple thousand dollars back makes a real difference. Most of the Marines who could use it have never heard of it. If you know a Marine family in the middle of an adoption, send this their way and tell them to talk to their admin shop early.

Sources: MARADMIN 501/26, Marines.mil

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

We're three weeks out from our veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville, November 6 to 8, 2026, and the question I hear most from guests is simple: what do I bring? Here's the list I'd give a buddy.

What we cover

Every Calm Seas Project trip is all-expenses-paid for our guests. Lodging, boats, guides and food are on us, and the schedule is already planned. You don't need to show up with a tackle box or a cooler. The whole point is that you can just show up.

What to bring

• Layers. Early November in Jacksonville can feel like summer by noon, but mornings on the water can be cool and windy. A light jacket or hoodie and a rain shell go a long way.
• Sun protection. A hat, polarized sunglasses if you have them, and sunscreen. The sun off the water hits harder than you think.
• The right shoes. Something with grip that you don't mind getting wet. Boat decks get slick.
• Meds and essentials. Pack any prescriptions you need, plus an extra day's worth, in a waterproof bag. Bring your ID too.
• A small dry bag. Keep your phone, wallet and keys dry. Bring a charger as well.

What to leave at home

The pressure. You don't need to be a good fisherman. You don't need to talk if you don't feel like it. Some of the best moments on our trips happen when nobody's saying anything at all, just watching the line and the water. Bring yourself and we'll handle the rest.

Know someone who should be there?

If there's a veteran or first responder in your life who could use a weekend like this, point them to calmseasproject.org. If you want to help put more guests on the water, that's where donations go too.

Sources: The Calm Seas Project · Upcoming Jacksonville event

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

This week's Soldier of Fortune is a Marine from Detroit who turned a single pizza shop into one of the most recognizable brands in America—and later made sure other veterans could build businesses of their own.

A Marine before the pizza

Michael Ilitch was born in Detroit on July 20, 1929. After high school he served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. When he came home he chased baseball for a stretch in the minors, then hung up the cleats after a knee injury. In 1959 he founded Little Caesars Pizza Treat in Garden City, Michigan. That shop became Little Caesars—and a national franchise system built on speed, value, and a lot of hard work.

Building more than a brand

Ilitch didn't stop at pizza. He bought the Detroit Red Wings in 1982 and the Detroit Tigers in 1992, poured money into downtown Detroit, and helped restore the Fox Theatre. Under his ownership the Red Wings won multiple Stanley Cups. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2003. He died on February 10, 2017, at age 87.

The veterans angle that stuck with me

In 2006, Ilitch founded the Little Caesars Veterans Program to help honorably discharged veterans start franchises when they leave the service or change careers. The Department of Veterans Affairs later gave him the Secretary's Award for that work—the highest honor the department gives a civilian. That's the part of his story I want other veterans to hear: service can be a foundation for building something that feeds people and creates jobs.

What veterans can take from it

• Start small, stay disciplined. One shop. Long hours. Clear standards. That's a Marine approach to business.
• Invest in your city. Ilitch kept putting money and attention back into Detroit when it would have been easier to leave.
• Pull other veterans up. The franchise program turned his success into a ladder. If you build something, leave a door open behind you.

Pizza and hockey aren't the point. The point is a Marine who kept showing up for his hometown and for the people who served after him. Semper Fi.

Know a veteran founder or veteran-owned business I should feature next? Let me know.

Sources: Mike Ilitch, Wikipedia · Michigan Military and Veterans Hall of Honor

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Soldier of Fortune.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month across the Marine Corps, and Headquarters Marine Corps just put a clean label on why it matters. MARADMIN 496/26 sets the 2026 theme as "Securing the Next 250"—a nod to the long view as the Corps heads toward its next century of service, and a reminder that readiness now includes the networks we fight and live on.

What the Corps is asking for

The message is practical. Cybersecurity is framed as readiness and force protection, not just an IT shop problem. Commanders set the tone. Cyber professionals hunt threats. Every authorized user is a defensive layer—because spotting a weird email or a bad login and reporting it fast can stop a problem before it spreads.

Marines are told to protect credentials, use systems only as authorized, take required updates, and stay alert to phishing, shady links, unexpected removable media, and anything that looks off. If something feels wrong, report it through the chain. Don't freelance an investigation on your own.

Why this hits home for veterans too

The same habits travel with you after EAS. Phishing and social engineering are only getting sharper, and the MARADMIN notes that emerging tools can make fake messages look more convincing. The advice is the same in or out of uniform: slow down before you click, lock down your accounts, and treat your login like gear you can't afford to lose.

What I'm doing with it

I'm treating this month as a personal check. Password manager on. Multifactor authentication on the accounts that matter. A little more skepticism about unexpected links—even ones that look like they came from a buddy. Semper Fi means staying faithful to the mission, and these days part of that mission is keeping our information locked down.

If you're still in, follow your command's Cybersecurity Awareness Month events. If you're out, take ten minutes this week to tighten one account. Small habits stack.

Sources: MARADMIN 496/26, Marines.mil · CISA: Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

I did not use SkillBridge when I got out of the Marine Corps. After the Marine Corps, I enrolled at the University of Alabama, earned a degree in operations management with a minor in supply chain management, and then finished an accelerated master's in operations management. That path worked for me. If you are still in uniform—or you are helping a junior Marine get ready to leave—SkillBridge is one of the strongest tools available in the last stretch of active duty, and it is worth understanding before you plan your EAS.

What SkillBridge is

DoD SkillBridge lets service members with 180 days or fewer remaining before discharge train with an authorized industry partner—job training, an internship, or an apprenticeship—while they are still on active duty. You keep your military pay and benefits for the approved period. The official program site is skillbridge.mil, where you can browse opportunities and partners. Authority for the program sits under 10 U.S.C. § 1143(e), and DoDI 1322.29 covers job training, employment skills, apprenticeships, and internships.

SkillBridge is not an entitlement. It needs command approval, and readiness comes first. If your package is denied, that is not a reflection on your service—it is a command decision about mission and timing.

Marine Corps rules to know

For Marines, start with NAVMC 1700.2B (SkillBridge Employment Training Program) and the interim guidance in MARADMIN 280/24. Broad eligibility includes completing at least 180 days of active duty; separating or retiring with an honorable or general under honorable characterization; enough contract time left to finish the opportunity before EAS; Transition Readiness Seminar requirements; ethics brief or training within 12 months of the start date; and command approval. You stay assigned to your parent command—no replacement until EAS—and the first commanding officer with court-martial convening authority has final approval on the package.

MARADMIN 280/24 also set a three-category max duration by rank (effective 31 August 2024 for new packages). In plain terms: junior enlisted generally get the longest window—up to 120 days before EAS—while more senior ranks are capped lower, typically up to 90 days, with approval levels that get stricter as rank goes up. Combined PTAD or leave with SkillBridge has to stay inside those category limits. Marines can start an application in NCMIS up to 365 days from EAS. Policies change, so confirm current unit and M&RA guidance, talk to your installation SkillBridge coordinator, and check skillbridge.mil and usmc-mccs.org for local centers before you lock in a plan.

How I would use it if I were still in

Treat SkillBridge like a short, focused internship with your paycheck still coming from the Corps. Look for partners whose day-to-day work matches the career you want—not just a big brand name. Ask what success looks like in 60 or 90 days, who you will report to, and whether the company has hired SkillBridge participants before. Start the conversation early so your package can move through your chain without last-minute friction.

If SkillBridge is not available or not a fit, you still have a strong path. Mine was college first: use your education benefits, then stack internships and student worker programs while you are in school. That combination—operations management coursework plus real work experience—did more for my resume than any single class. SkillBridge is one way to get civilian experience before you hang up the uniform. College and internships are how you keep building after you are out.

My advice

If you have under a year to EAS, open skillbridge.mil this week, talk to your career planner or SkillBridge coordinator, and read the current Marine Corps message traffic—not a rumor in the smoke pit. Bring your command a clean package with a clear timeline. And if you are already out, or SkillBridge was not an option for you, do what I did next: get into school, use every benefit you earned, and treat internships as part of the mission. Transition is a series of decisions. Make the ones you still control count.

Sources: DoD SkillBridge · MARADMIN 280/24 · 10 U.S.C. § 1143

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

From Jacksonville, FL, I still pay attention when the Marine Corps talks about recruiting. I wore the uniform from 2014 to 2018, and I know how much of the institution's future rides on who walks through the door next. This month brought good news: Marine Corps Recruiting Command exceeded its Fiscal Year 2026 recruiting mission across every component and category.

The numbers

According to a DVIDS story from Marine Corps Recruiting Command (October 1, 2026), the Corps accessed 31,250 enlisted Marines, 1,672 officers, and 3,503 prior-service Reserve Marines in FY26. It also exceeded DoW accession baselines in all categories—meaning the quality standards held, not just the headcount. Stars and Stripes reported the same figures and noted the Corps added 714 more Marines than the previous year, when it also met its target.

That streak matters. Stars and Stripes notes the Marine Corps has met its recruiting goals every year since 1994. Other Pentagon services also met their FY26 recruiting goals. For anyone who followed the tougher recruiting years earlier this decade, that consistency is worth noticing.

A favorable landscape—and a head start on FY27

Marine Corps Recruiting Command described FY26 as the most favorable recruiting landscape in the past five years: a high volume of interested applicants combined with historically strong retention. That mix helps. When more people want to serve and more Marines stay, the force stays healthier.

The command is not resting on it. By the start of the new fiscal year, it had already contracted more than half of the entire FY27 mission—a strong head start that Stars and Stripes also highlighted. For young Americans still deciding whether the Corps is for them, the door is open: Marines.com or 1-800-MARINES.

What it means to me

Meeting a recruiting goal is not a trophy for one office. It is a signal that enough young men and women still choose a hard path—boot camp, standards, and a culture that asks a lot. I remember what that choice felt like. You are trading comfort for something larger than yourself, and you do not fully understand the weight of it until you are in it.

As a Marine veteran living in Jacksonville, I am glad to see the Corps starting FY27 from a position of strength. Strong recruiting and retention mean the next generation of Marines will have the teammates and leaders they deserve. If you are considering service, dig into the facts, talk to people who have worn the eagle, globe, and anchor, and decide with clear eyes. The Corps will still be there—and, for another year, it is filling its ranks with people ready to earn the title.

Sources: DVIDS / Marine Corps Recruiting Command · Stars and Stripes

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Every good day on the First Coast starts at the ramp. Jacksonville has more public launch sites than most people realize, spread from the Mayport inlet to the marsh off Heckscher Drive, the Intracoastal at the beaches, and miles up the St. Johns River. Here's a practical guide to where the public ramps are, a timely closure to know about, and the ramp habits and Florida rules that make launch day go smoothly.

Start with the official lists

The City of Jacksonville's JaxParks water access page lists the city's public launch sites for motorized and non-motorized boats, along with separate kayak-only launches and fishing piers. Statewide, the FWC's Florida Public Boat Ramp Finder has descriptions, maps, and photos for hundreds of public ramps. FWC notes that most of the ramps it maintains are free and open 24 hours a day, but closures are not reported in real time, so it suggests checking with local authorities before heading to a ramp you don't know (FWC).

For Northeast Florida specifically, FWC's Boating and Angling Guide to Nassau and Duval Counties has a ramp-by-ramp table showing the number of ramps and lanes, whether the ramp is paved, and whether there's a fee, docks, or restrooms. It's one of the most useful planning tools for Jacksonville boaters.

Near the inlet and the marsh

If you're fishing the mouth of the St. Johns, the jetties, or the marsh creeks north of the river, these are the city-listed ramps closest to the action:

• Mayport (Michael B. Scanlon) Boat Ramp, 4870 Ocean St. FWC's guide lists it at 2 ramps and 6 lanes, paved, with no ramp fee, docks, and restrooms.
• Sisters Creek / Jim King Park, 8203 Heckscher Dr., and Joe Carlucci Sisters Creek Park, 8414 Heritage River Rd., both off Heckscher Drive along Sisters Creek.
• Palms Fish Camp, 6359 Heckscher Dr., and Alimacani, 11080 Heckscher Dr. FWC's guide lists Alimacani as unpaved, so it's better suited to small boats.
• Big Talbot Island State Park and Cedar Point (National Park Service) for the backwaters farther north. FWC's guide shows a ramp fee at Big Talbot.

The Intracoastal at the beaches

For the ICW, the city lists McCue Park and Boat Ramp at 2510 2nd Ave. N., which FWC's guide shows with 4 lanes, and the Pottsburg Creek / Beach Boulevard ramp at 8540 Beach Blvd. If you're running the ICW toward Mayport or the marsh, it's worth reading my tides post first, because the current through there can be strong.

Up the St. Johns River

Upriver, the city's list includes Arlington Road (5103 Arlington Rd.), Arlington Lions Club Park (4322 Richard D. Gatlin Rd.), Wayne B. Stevens (4555 Ortega Farms Blvd.), Tommy Hazouri Sr. (Mandarin) Park (14780 Mandarin Rd.), and Goodbys / John T. Lowe (9021 San Jose Blvd.). On the north side of the river, there's Bert Maxwell (680 Broward Rd.). FWC's guide lists Bert Maxwell with 4 lanes and Wayne B. Stevens with 2 ramps and 4 lanes, which helps on a busy weekend morning.

Heads up: St. Johns Marina ramp is closed

If you've been launching downtown at the St. Johns Marina ramp at 901 Museum Circle, plan around it. According to the City of Jacksonville, the ramp has a planned closure from August 1, 2026, to summer 2028 during construction of an adjacent development, with significant improvements to the ramp facility planned during that time. The city says the next closest ramps are Arlington Road and Arlington Lions Club.

The city also notes its marina and floating dock rule: docking is allowed up to 72 hours anywhere not marked with specific signage.

Ramp etiquette that keeps the line moving

A busy ramp on a Saturday morning can be stressful, especially for newer boaters. FWC's tips for beginner boaters boil it down to a few habits:

• Do your prep away from the ramp, before you back down and before you pull out for the drive home. Leave the safety chain on until you launch, and put it back on as soon as the boat is winched up.
• Two people make it easier: one drives the tow vehicle, one runs the boat.
• Once the boat is off the trailer, move it out of the launch lane so others can use it.
• When you come in, make sure your tow vehicle is at the ramp and ready before you pull the boat into the lane.
• Don't power load. FWC says using the motor to drive the boat onto the trailer can damage the ramp and cause problems for other boaters.
• If you're launching a kayak or paddleboard without a trailer, don't park in a trailer space.

A few more simple checks help too: check the drain plug before the boat touches the water, walk around the trailer to confirm the lights work and the straps are off, and give the folks who are still learning some grace. Everybody had a first day at the ramp.

Florida rules before you launch

Boater education. Anyone born on or after January 1, 1988, who operates a boat with an engine of 10 horsepower or more in Florida must complete an approved boating safety course and get a Florida Boating Safety Education ID Card, which doesn't expire (FWC). FWC's boating regulations say to carry that card and a photo ID aboard.

Registration. Motorized vessels must be registered through your local tax collector's office, and the Certificate of Registration has to be on board whenever the boat is operated (FWC). On the trailer side, Florida's registration requirements for trailers are set out in Chapter 320, Florida Statutes (FLHSMV), and FLHSMV notes that trailers weighing less than 2,000 pounds are exempt from titling (FLHSMV).

Safety gear. FWC requires a wearable USCG-approved life jacket for each person aboard, a throwable device on boats 16 feet or longer, and a sound-producing device such as a whistle, plus fire extinguishers and visual distress signals depending on the boat. Children under 6 must wear a life jacket while underway on a vessel under 26 feet (FWC). FWC's safety equipment page has the full list.

Weather and a float plan. FWC recommends leaving a float plan with someone onshore and checking the marine forecast before and during your trip; it points boaters to the National Weather Service marine forecasts (FWC).

See you at the ramp

Getting people from the parking lot to the water is a big part of what The Calm Seas Project does for veterans and first responders. Our veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville is coming up November 6 to 8. Before you keep any fish, check the current FWC saltwater regulations, and see my fall fishing post for this season's rules. Ramp details change, so confirm with the city or FWC before you go.

Sources: City of Jacksonville: Water Access · FWC: Duval County public boat ramps · FWC: Boat Ramps and Access · FWC: Boat Ramp Finder · FWC: Tips for beginner boaters · FWC: Boating Safety Education ID Card · FWC: Boating Regulations · FWC: Safety Equipment · FLHSMV: Liens and Titles · FLHSMV: Trailers (RS-63) · NWS: Marine Forecasts

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in First Coast Fishing.

Every October, as the Marine Corps birthday gets closer, there's another date that Marines carry with them: October 23. On that morning in 1983, the Corps lost more Marines in a single day than on any day since Iwo Jima.

What happened

In 1982, at the request of the Lebanese government, the United States agreed to put a military presence in Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. On March 24, 1983, the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, got orders to Beirut (MCB Camp Lejeune).

Early on Sunday, October 23, 1983, a truck packed with explosives drove into the headquarters building of Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, at Beirut International Airport. The blast collapsed the building. When the final count was tallied, 241 Americans had been killed: 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, and 3 Army soldiers (Marines.mil; Marine Corps History Division, U.S. Marines in Lebanon 1982–1984). The Marine Corps' official history notes it was the highest loss of life for Marines in a single day since D-Day on Iwo Jima in 1945.

How Marines remember

The Beirut Memorial stands outside Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, honoring those lost (Beirut Memorial). Marines there also hold an annual Beirut Memorial Run, where participants run 241 laps, one for each service member lost (Marines.mil).

Why it matters to me

When you join the Corps, you inherit its history, the hard days included. Beirut is part of that inheritance. The Marines, sailors, and soldiers in that building were there on a peacekeeping mission, and many were young men just starting out. On October 23, I'll take a moment to remember them, and I'd ask anyone reading this to do the same. If you know a Beirut veteran or a Gold Star family from that day, reach out. It means more than you'd think.

Sources: Marines.mil · MCB Camp Lejeune Beirut Memorial · Marine Corps History Division

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Every Marine knows the date. On November 10, 2026, the Marine Corps turns 251, and Marines around the world, active duty and veterans alike, will stop to mark it. Here's a little of the history behind the day and why it still matters to me.

Where it started

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Marines to serve alongside the new naval forces in the Revolutionary War. Recruiting famously began at Tun Tavern on Water Street in Philadelphia, which is why Marines still call it the birthplace of the Corps. The tavern burned down in 1781, and Interstate 95 now runs over where it stood (Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms).

After the Revolution the Continental Marines were disbanded. On July 11, 1798, Congress created the United States Marine Corps, and for more than a century Marines celebrated their birthday on July 11 (Department of Defense, History of Marine Corps Day).

Why November 10

In 1921, the Commandant issued Marine Corps Order No. 47, which made November 10 the official birthday and directed that a summary of the Corps' history, mission, and traditions be read to every command each year. That message is still read today (Marines.mil).

The traditions

A birthday ceremony usually includes a guest of honor, the reading of the 1921 birthday message and the current Commandant's message, and the cake cutting, where the first piece goes to the oldest Marine present and is passed to the youngest. The first cake ceremony on record took place at Marine Barracks Washington in 1937, with a cake shaped like Tun Tavern.

What it means to me

I've celebrated the birthday in uniform and as a veteran, and it hits differently now. It's a reminder that the Corps is bigger than any one of us. It's a long line of people who signed up to serve, and that bond doesn't end when you take the uniform off. This year I'll be thinking of the Marines I served with, and of the veterans The Calm Seas Project will host in Jacksonville just days before the birthday.

Celebrating on the First Coast? See my guide to Veterans Day 2026 in Jacksonville, and how to get free national park entry on Veterans Day. For my own four years in the Corps, see Ryan Gunning's USMC service, 2014–2018.

If you're a Marine, reach out to someone you served with this November 10. Happy 251st birthday, Marines. Semper Fidelis.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

We're three weeks out from our next trip. From November 6 to 8, 2026, The Calm Seas Project hosts eight military veterans in Jacksonville, Florida, for fishing, camaraderie, and a real break from the noise. Here's how we get ready—and why the prep is part of the mission.

The weekend in plain terms

Every Calm Seas Project trip is all-expenses-paid for our guests. We handle lodging, boats, guides, food, and the schedule so veterans can show up and be present. It's not a conference. It's time on the water with people who get it.

What we're locking down now

• Boats and water time. Weather windows, tide windows, and backup plans if the wind kicks up. Jacksonville gives us marsh, river, and nearshore options, and we use all three when we can.
• Gear and food. Rods, tackle, safety gear, coolers, and enough food that nobody's thinking about the next meal. The van runs a lot of miles in the weeks before a trip.
• The guest list. Eight is intentional. Small groups mean real conversations. We want every veteran on the trip to feel seen, not herded.

Why the logistics matter

In the Marine Corps, you learn that the mission fails in the details you skip. Same here. If a guest is worrying about gas money, a ride, or whether there's a plan when the weather turns, they can't relax. Our job is to carry that load so they don't have to.

How you can help

If you want to support the Jacksonville weekend—or point a veteran our way—start at calmseasproject.org. Donations put guests on the water. Shares put the word in front of someone who needs it. I'll post again as we get closer to November 6.

Sources: The Calm Seas Project · Upcoming Jacksonville event

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

One of the proudest moments of my time with the University of Alabama Campus Veterans Association was seeing the Governor of Alabama proclaim Operation Iron Ruck Day in Alabama.

Operation Iron Ruck brings student veterans and the community together around a ruck march. For anyone who hasn't done one, a ruck is a march carrying a weighted pack. It's hard and it's humbling, and doing it shoulder to shoulder with people builds a connection that's tough to find anywhere else.

Being recognized by the state

Having the state recognize the event meant a lot to all of us who worked on it. It wasn't about any one person. It was about the student veterans, volunteers, and supporters who show up every year. CBS 42 covered the proclamation, and I was grateful to get the chance to talk about what the event means. You can read their story here: The Governor of Alabama proclaims Operation Iron Ruck Day in Alabama (CBS 42).

The University of Alabama also wrote about the event: Building community: Operation Iron Ruck 2025.

If there's one thing I took from it, it's that veterans do best when we stay connected and keep serving something bigger than ourselves.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

This week on American Valor: one of the most famous names in Marine Corps history. October 24 and 25 mark the anniversary of the fight that earned him the Medal of Honor.

"Manila John"

John Basilone was born in Buffalo, New York, on November 4, 1916, one of ten children, and grew up in Raritan, New Jersey. He served a three-year enlistment in the Army, including time in the Philippines, which is why his fellow Marines later called him "Manila John." In July 1940 he enlisted in the Marine Corps in Baltimore (Marine Corps History Division).

Guadalcanal, October 24–25, 1942

Sergeant Basilone was with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, in the Lunga Area of Guadalcanal, in charge of two sections of heavy machine guns. His Medal of Honor citation describes what happened when the enemy launched a fierce frontal attack. One of his sections was put out of action, leaving only two men able to carry on. Basilone moved an extra gun into position and, "under continual fire, repaired another and personally manned it, gallantly holding his line until replacements arrived." Later, "with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off," he "battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners" (Naval History and Heritage Command; Arlington National Cemetery).

Back to the fight

Basilone came home a hero, but he asked to return to combat. At Iwo Jima he was attached to the 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division. On D-Day, February 19, 1945, he single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse under heavy fire and was killed in action that day. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross (Marine Corps History Division). Arlington National Cemetery notes he was the only enlisted Marine to receive both the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor during World War II, and the Marine Corps History Division notes that the destroyer USS Basilone was named in his honor.

Why this story stays with me

Basilone had already earned the nation's highest award. He could have stayed home. Instead he went back to his Marines. That choice says everything about what the Corps means by Semper Fidelis.

Sources: Naval History and Heritage Command · Marine Corps History Division · Arlington National Cemetery

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in American Valor.

Tuscaloosa holds a big chapter of my life. After four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, I moved to Tuscaloosa and enrolled at The University of Alabama, where I earned a degree in operations management and then an accelerated master's in operations management. Today I live in Jacksonville, FL, but a lot of who I am was shaped on that campus. For the full story of those years, see my Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa page.

Before Tuscaloosa: four years in the Marine Corps

I served in the Marine Corps from 2014 to 2018. I graduated from Airborne School in 2015 and SERE school in 2016, and I deployed to Africa in 2016 and to the Middle East in 2017 and 2018. I spent four years with Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) as an Airborne and Air Delivery Sergeant, supporting 900 Raiders. I was also awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for life-saving actions. You can read more on my About page and my Marine Corps service page.

Ryan Gunning at The University of Alabama

At Alabama I studied operations management with a minor in supply chain management, and then continued into the accelerated master's program in operations management. Along the way I earned a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Moving from the Corps to a college classroom is a real adjustment, and Tuscaloosa turned out to be a great place to make it. My full academic background is on my Education page.

President's List and Dean's List honors

I worked hard to earn my grades, and The University of Alabama recognized that work several times:

• President's List (4.0): fall 2018, spring 2019, fall 2022, and spring 2023
• Dean's List: summer 2019, fall 2023, and spring 2024

Those honors are listed on my Tuscaloosa page along with links to verify them.

Why operations management is an outstanding degree for veterans

I think operations management is one of the best degrees a veteran can choose, because it carries the lessons you learned in the military into the classroom. Planning, logistics, moving people and equipment where they need to be, and keeping a process running under pressure are things many of us already did in uniform. In operations management you study the theory behind work you've already done, and that gives you a real head start.

My advice for student veterans

Your degree is only part of what gets you hired. Build your resume while you're in school with internships and student worker programs. They give you real experience to talk about in interviews, people who can speak to your work, and a sense of which careers fit you. Start looking early, and treat that experience as part of your education rather than something extra. I wrote more about using your benefits and building your resume in From the Marine Corps to College and Making 36 Months Count.

From Tuscaloosa to Jacksonville

I now call Jacksonville, FL home, where I run The Calm Seas Project. I still carry the lessons from my Tuscaloosa years with me, and I'm proud to be a University of Alabama graduate. If you're a Marine or veteran thinking about going back to school, I hope my story helps.

Ryan Gunning in Tuscaloosa → Education About Ryan Gunning

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

I served in the United States Marine Corps as an Airborne and Air Delivery Specialist, working with Marine Special Operations Teams as an enabler. When I got out, I went to school at the University of Alabama. Going from the military to a college campus is a big change, and I was lucky to find other veterans who were going through the same thing.

The Campus Veterans Association

Serving on the board of the University of Alabama Campus Veterans Association gave me a way to keep serving. We helped student veterans connect with each other and with resources, and we put on community events like Operation Iron Ruck. I also had the chance to speak up for student veterans on things like education benefits. I learned a lot from the people I worked with there.

Life in Jacksonville

Today I live in Jacksonville, Florida (more on my path from the Marine Corps to Alabama to Jacksonville). It's a great military town, and it's close to the water, which matters a lot to me. I spend as much time as I can fishing and diving, and building The Calm Seas Project so more veterans and first responders can get out there too.

If you're a veteran making the transition, my advice is simple: find your people and stay connected. Feel free to reach out at gunning.rp@gmail.com.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Mail Call.

Most people who see this photo laugh first, and that's fair. A cold plunge isn't graceful. But the reason I'm sitting in that tub is the same reason The Calm Seas Project exists: getting outside, doing something hard alongside other people, and coming out the other side with a clearer head.

Our trips are built around fishing and diving, not lectures. Still, I think it's worth looking at what the research actually says about time outdoors and on the water, so here's an honest rundown, including where the science is still thin.

Time in nature: about two hours a week

A 2019 study in Scientific Reports looked at nearly 20,000 adults in England and found that people who spent at least 120 minutes in nature during the previous week were more likely to report good health and high wellbeing than people who spent none. It didn't matter whether those two hours came in one long trip or several short ones, and the benefits leveled off somewhere around 200 to 300 minutes a week. The authors are clear that it's an observational study, so it shows a link, not proof of cause.

For a lot of veterans and first responders, two hours outside a week sounds easy until you look at a real schedule. That's part of why we make our trips a full weekend.

Why the water matters

Researchers have a term for coastal and freshwater settings: "blue space." A 2020 systematic review in Health Promotion International looked at 33 studies of structured programs built around outdoor water, things like surfing, sailing, and paddling. Overall, the studies suggested these programs can benefit mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, with some evidence of stronger social connection during and after. The results were mixed across studies, and there was little evidence for physical health, so the authors called for more rigorous research.

That lines up with what we see on a boat. The fishing gives everyone something to do with their hands, and the conversations tend to happen on their own.

About that cold plunge

Cold water immersion has a lot of hype around it, so I want to be straight about it. A 2022 review in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health looked at 104 studies and found real physiological effects, but most studies were small, and the authors concluded the health benefits remain "a subject of debate." Mental health was one of the areas they said deserves more research.

So I don't do it because a study promised me anything. I do it because it's a few uncomfortable minutes I choose on purpose, usually with other people cheering or laughing nearby. If you want to try it, check with your doctor first, especially if you have heart or blood pressure concerns, and never do it alone.

What this means for The Calm Seas Project

The Calm Seas Project offers all-expenses-paid fishing and diving trips for veterans and first responders facing PTSD and mental health struggles. It started as an idea among friends on a fishing trip, and in our first four months we raised more than $40,000. Our next trip is a veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville on November 6–8, 2026, with eight military veterans.

None of this replaces professional care. Time outside is one tool, and the people around you are another. If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. It's free, confidential, and available 24/7.

If you want to help put more veterans and first responders on the water, visit calmseasproject.org or follow @calmseasproject on Instagram and Facebook.

Sources: White et al., Scientific Reports (2019); Britton et al., Health Promotion International (2020); Esperland et al., International Journal of Circumpolar Health (2022); Veterans Crisis Line; The Calm Seas Project

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. About The Calm Seas Project. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

This week's Soldier of Fortune is a Marine who says he owes everything he has to the Corps.

From failing grades to Parris Island

Bob Parsons grew up in Baltimore and, by his own account, was failing his senior year of high school when he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968 (bobparsons.com). He served in Vietnam in 1969 as an 0311 rifleman with Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, in Quang Nam Province. About a month after arriving, he walked through a tripwire and was wounded by shrapnel. He received the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry (VFW; Leatherneck).

Two companies built from scratch

After the Marine Corps, Parsons earned an accounting degree from the University of Baltimore and became a CPA. He taught himself to program and in 1984 started Parsons Technology, selling financial software he wrote himself. He sold it to Intuit in 1994 for $64 million. In 1997 he founded GoDaddy, which grew into the world's largest domain name registrar. In 2011 he sold a majority of the company to private equity investors (bobparsons.com; Leatherneck).

Today he runs YAM Worldwide, a group of companies in golf, motorcycles, real estate, and marketing, including Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG).

Paying it forward

Parsons has spoken openly about his own struggles after Vietnam and about helping others overcome PTSD (Sports Illustrated). Through The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation he has given heavily to veteran causes. VFW reported in 2019 that he had donated nearly $50 million to veteran-related causes, and PXG has offered veterans a discount on its products (VFW).

What I take from it

Parsons wasn't an early bloomer, and he's said so himself. What changed was the discipline and accountability he learned as a Marine rifleman. If you're a veteran thinking about starting something, his story is a good reminder that where you start doesn't decide where you finish.

Sources: bobparsons.com · Marine Corps Association / Leatherneck · VFW

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Soldier of Fortune.

After the Marine Corps, I went to the University of Alabama, earned a degree in operations management with a minor in supply chain management, and then finished an accelerated master's in operations management. If you're thinking about going past a bachelor's, the biggest thing I'd tell you is to plan your benefits like a mission, not semester by semester.

Know your number: 36 months

VA's Post-9/11 GI Bill page lists the maximum Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement as 36 months. Some veterans with more than one qualifying period of service, or with 56 or more months of active duty, may qualify for up to 48 months combined with Montgomery GI Bill benefits under the Rudisill decision. VA says it reviews those cases automatically. Your GI Bill Statement of Benefits shows exactly how much you've used and how much you have left. Check it before every semester.

Why an accelerated master's is worth a look

The Post-9/11 GI Bill can help pay for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. An accelerated program, where some graduate coursework overlaps with the end of your bachelor's, can help you finish both degrees in less total time. That's time you aren't paying out of pocket. Talk to your department and your school's VA certifying official early so the plan works with your benefits.

Yellow Ribbon for private, out-of-state, or graduate tuition

If your school costs more than the GI Bill covers, look at the Yellow Ribbon Program. VA says it can help with higher out-of-state, private, foreign, or graduate school tuition and fees. You need to qualify at the 100% benefit level, and your school has to participate. The school decides how much to contribute, and VA matches it. Spots are first come, first served, so apply early.

Rogers STEM Scholarship

If you're in a STEM undergrad program and running low on benefits, the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship can add up to 9 months of benefits or $30,000, whichever comes first. You need at least 60 credit hours completed in a qualifying program that requires 120 or more, and 6 months or less of GI Bill entitlement left. It can't be used for graduate programs. Business degrees generally aren't on the approved list, so check VA's list of fields before you count on it.

Why I keep recommending operations management

I think operations management is an outstanding degree for veterans. Planning, logistics, and leading people under pressure are what we did in uniform, and they translate directly into the classroom. Pair the degree with internships and student worker programs, and you'll graduate with experience employers can see. That combination did more for my career than any single class.

Sources: VA: Post-9/11 GI Bill · VA: Yellow Ribbon Program · VA: Rogers STEM Scholarship

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

If you fish the First Coast long enough, you figure out that the tide runs the show. The water in the St. Johns River, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the marsh creeks around Jacksonville is almost always moving one way or the other, and the fish move with it. Here's how I think about tides and currents before I head out, and the free official tools I lean on to plan.

Start with the right NOAA station

NOAA's Tides & Currents site publishes free tide predictions for dozens of stations around Jacksonville. The main one near the mouth of the river is Mayport (Bar Pilots Dock), station 8720218, and NOAA's published datums for it put the mean tide range there at about 4.5 feet.

Here's the catch: most of us aren't fishing at the Mayport dock. NOAA also lists prediction stations up the river and back in the marsh, including Dames Point, the Southbank Riverwalk downtown, the I-295 Buckman Bridge, Sisters Creek, and Pablo Creek at the ICW bridge. Pick the station closest to where you'll actually wet a line, not the one at the inlet.

The tide runs late up the river

NOAA's predictions for Wednesday, October 14, 2026, show how big the difference can be. The late-morning high tide is predicted at 11:47 a.m. at Mayport, 12:27 p.m. at Dames Point, 1:30 p.m. at the Southbank Riverwalk, and 2:53 p.m. at the Buckman Bridge. That's about three hours between the inlet and the Buckman. The swing shrinks too: Mayport's predicted rise from the early-morning low to that high is about 4.5 feet, while at the Buckman it's under a foot. Plan an upriver trip off the Mayport tide and you can be hours off.

Flood, ebb, and slack

A tide chart tells you how high the water is. What I really care about is which way it's moving. NOAA explains that when a tidal current moves toward land it "floods," and when it moves back toward the sea it "ebbs." In coastal rivers and estuaries like ours, there's a short slack period as the current turns, which NOAA says can last from seconds to several minutes and generally coincides with high or low tide.

The moon matters as well. NOAA notes that around the full and new moon, tidal currents run strong (spring currents), and around the first and third quarter moons they run weak (neap currents). On a strong current you'll need more weight to hold bottom. FWC's advice is to use a weight heavy enough to beat the current, but the lightest one that still gets your bait down (FWC).

Incoming vs. outgoing in the marsh

FWC's tips for fishing the flats line up well with how I think about our marsh. The incoming tide, several hours before high, can be the better window because many fish gather closer to shore. On the outgoing tide, schools get pushed off the shallows toward deeper water, which gives you another shot at them (FWC). In the marsh, that means working the grass edges and shorelines as the water floods in, then shifting to creek mouths, drains, and deeper bends as it pulls back out.

FWC also says salt marshes are covered by tidal water on a regular basis, and the best spots have bottom structure like shells, oysters, rocks, or flooded vegetation. Watch for birds diving, bait leaping, and fish breaking the surface or pushing wakes (FWC). Keep an eye on your depth as the tide drops, too. FWC asks boaters to learn the waterways they travel so they don't damage their boats or oyster reefs and seagrass beds.

Predictions aren't promises

Tide tables are predictions, and weather can push the real water level around. NOAA says strong offshore winds can move water away from the coast and exaggerate low tides, while onshore winds can pile water up and nearly wipe out a low. High-pressure systems can mean exceptionally low tides, and low-pressure systems are often tied to tides much higher than predicted (NOAA).

For the river itself, NOAA runs the St. Johns River Operational Forecast System, a model that produces hourly nowcasts and forecasts four times a day of water levels and currents. NOAA describes it as model guidance, so I treat it as one more tool alongside the tide table and what I can see on the water.

Respect the current

Moving water is what makes the fishing good, and it also deserves respect. Wear your life jacket. When you release a fish that needs a minute, FWC says you can revive it by letting the current push water over its gills or by easing the boat in and out of gear while you hold it in the water (FWC). FWC also recommends keeping detailed notes on your good days. I'd add the NOAA station you used, the tide stage, and the wind, because over time those notes become your own local tide book.

Teaching someone to read the water is one of my favorite parts of getting veterans out with The Calm Seas Project. If you want to learn alongside us, our veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville is coming up in November. Before you keep anything, check the current FWC saltwater regulations, and for sheepshead, redfish, and trout rules, see my sheepshead post. See you on the water.

Sources: NOAA: Mayport (Bar Pilots Dock) station · NOAA: Mayport datums · NOAA: Tide predictions · NOAA: Tidal currents · NOAA: What affects tides · NOAA: SJROFS · FWC: Saltwater fishing tips · FWC: Marine habitats

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in First Coast Fishing.

We're a few weeks out from our next Calm Seas Project trip, and I get asked the same question a lot: "How can I help?" Here's a quick refresher on what we do and three ways you can be part of it.

What The Calm Seas Project does

The Calm Seas Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that offers all-expenses-paid fishing and diving excursions for veterans and first responders facing PTSD and mental health struggles. It started as an idea among friends on a fishing trip, built on a simple belief: sometimes the most meaningful conversations happen on the water. In our first four months, we raised more than $40,000 to support veterans and first responders.

It's not simply about fishing. It's about bringing people back together, rebuilding connections, supporting mental wellness through shared time on the water, and reminding every guest that they're never alone.

Where we've been, and what's next

In April 2026 we hosted a Marine Raider Reunion in Pensacola, held in honor of a fallen Marine Raider brother. Next up is our veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 6–8, 2026, with eight military veterans.

Three ways to help

1. Give. Every trip is all-expenses-paid for our guests, so donations go directly to getting veterans and first responders on the water. You can give at calmseasproject.org.
2. Spread the word. Follow @calmseasproject and share our posts. Someone in your circle may know a veteran or first responder who needs a weekend like this.
3. Know someone who should come? If you know a veteran or first responder who's struggling, point them to calmseasproject.org. Sometimes a day on the water is the first step.

Thank you to everyone who has already volunteered, donated, or just shown up. I'll post an update from Jacksonville after the November trip.

Sources: The Calm Seas Project

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. About The Calm Seas Project. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

Welcome to American Valor, a new weekly series where I share true, documented stories of Americans in uniform who showed extraordinary courage. With the Marine Corps birthday coming up on November 10, it felt right to start with a Marine.

Patrol Base Dakota

In November 2010, Lance Corporal William "Kyle" Carpenter was an automatic rifleman with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, deployed to the Marjah District of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His platoon, two reinforced Marine squads partnered with an Afghan National Army squad, had set up Patrol Base Dakota in a small village two days earlier to disrupt enemy activity and help secure the local population (Congressional Medal of Honor Society).

November 21, 2010

Carpenter and a fellow Marine were manning a sandbagged rooftop security position on the edge of the patrol base when the enemy launched a daylight attack with hand grenades. One landed inside their position. According to his Medal of Honor citation, "without hesitation, and with complete disregard for his own safety," Carpenter moved toward the grenade to shield his fellow Marine. When it detonated, his body absorbed the brunt of the blast. He was severely wounded, but the other Marine survived (CMOHS citation).

The road back

Carpenter spent about two and a half years recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and was medically retired as a corporal on July 30, 2013 (Marines.mil). On June 19, 2014, he received the Medal of Honor at the White House, becoming the eighth living recipient for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan (Marines.mil press release; Marine Corps History Division). He was born in Flowood, Mississippi, enlisted in 2009, and went through boot camp at Parris Island.

Why this story stays with me

Every Marine learns early that you look out for the Marine next to you. Carpenter's actions on that rooftop are about as pure an example of that as there is. He chose his brother's life over his own safety in a split second. Stories like his are why I'm proud to have worn the uniform, and why I believe so strongly in taking care of each other after we come home.

About the author

Ryan Gunning is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran in Jacksonville, Florida, and the founder of The Calm Seas Project, which takes veterans and first responders out on the water. American Valor posts every Sunday morning.

Sources: Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Marines.mil · Marines.mil press release · Marine Corps History Division

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in American Valor.

We're about five weeks away from The Calm Seas Project's next trip. From November 6 to 8, 2026, we're hosting eight military veterans in Jacksonville, Florida, for a weekend on the water.

How it started

The Calm Seas Project started among friends on a fishing trip. We saw what a few days on the water did for each other: the quiet, the shared work, and the conversations that come easier on a boat than anywhere else. We wanted to give that to more people, so we built a nonprofit around it. Today the project serves veterans and first responders.

What we've done so far

In our first four months, supporters helped us raise more than $40,000. That support made our Marine Raider Reunion in Pensacola possible this past April, and it's what makes the Jacksonville weekend possible now. You can read about Pensacola here and about the Jacksonville event here.

The countdown

Over the next few weeks we're locking in the final details so the eight veterans joining us can just show up and enjoy it. The goal is simple: time on the water, good company, and a weekend that leaves everyone a little lighter than when they arrived. I'll share a recap after we're back.

How you can help

If you want to support the mission, visit calmseasproject.org and follow along on Instagram and Facebook at @calmseasproject. Sharing our posts helps more veterans and first responders find us.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

Welcome to Soldier of Fortune, a new series where I spotlight veterans in business: veteran CEOs, founders, veteran-owned companies, and young veteran entrepreneurs. A lot of what we learn in uniform, like planning, logistics, leading people under pressure, and owning the mission, carries directly into building a company. The first story had to be one of the biggest examples there is.

A Marine Before He Was a CEO

Frederick Wallace Smith was born in Marks, Mississippi, on August 11, 1944, and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned an economics degree from Yale in 1966. After graduation he was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps and served from 1966 to 1969, including two tours in Vietnam as a platoon leader and as a forward air controller flying in the back seat of the OV-10. He left the Corps as a captain, having received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts.

His Silver Star citation covers May 27, 1968, when he was a first lieutenant commanding Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. According to the citation, he ran through intense fire to pull casualties out of danger and called artillery and air strikes to within fifty meters of his own position. Then he led an enveloping attack that routed the enemy unit. The citation credits his "calm presence of mind under fire."

Building Federal Express

Smith founded Federal Express on June 18, 1971. He put in his own inheritance and raised about $91 million in venture capital. In 1973 the company began service to 25 cities with a fleet of 14 Dassault Falcon 20 jets, shipping small packages and documents. His big idea was an integrated air-ground system, with packages flowing through a central hub the way checks flow through a bank clearing house. That hub-and-spoke model changed how the world ships.

FedEx grew into the world's largest express transportation company. Smith led it as CEO for about five decades, stepped down as CEO in June 2022, and stayed on as executive chairman. He died on June 21, 2025, at age 80.

What Veterans Can Take From His Story

• Logistics is a superpower. Moving people, gear, and supplies on time is what the military does every day. FedEx is that same discipline turned into a business.
• Think in systems. Smith didn't just want faster planes. He designed a whole network. Veterans who have seen how a unit, a supply chain, or an operation fits together can spot gaps like that.
• Stay calm when things go wrong. The early years at FedEx were rough. The steadiness his citation describes is the same thing a founder needs when cash runs low and the plan stops working.

As someone who studied operations and supply chain management after the Marine Corps, I think Fred Smith's story shows exactly why military experience translates into business. Semper Fi.

Next time on Soldier of Fortune: another veteran who turned service into a company. Know a veteran founder or veteran-owned business I should feature? Let me know.

Sources

• Frederick W. Smith, Wikipedia (biography, Marine Corps service, Silver Star citation, and FedEx history)
• FedEx: Our History

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Soldier of Fortune.

When I got out of the Marine Corps, I went to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. I earned a degree in operations management with a minor in supply chain management, and then went on to complete an accelerated master's in operations management. Going from the Corps to a college campus is a big shift. This is the first post in my Veteran Transition series, and I want to start with what I'd tell any Marine or veteran heading to school: use every benefit you've earned, and start building your resume on day one.

Why operations management is a great fit for veterans

If you're deciding what to study, I think operations management is an outstanding degree for veterans. It translates what you learned in the military directly into the classroom. The planning, logistics, organization, and leadership you practiced in uniform show up in the coursework, so you're building on experience you already have instead of starting from scratch.

Build your resume while you're in school

The biggest lesson I took from college is that your degree is only part of what gets you hired. Internships and student worker programs can be just as valuable as your time in class when it comes to landing a job after graduation. They give you real experience to talk about in interviews, people who can vouch for your work, and a feel for which careers fit you. Check your school's career center early and look for internships and on-campus jobs from your first semester.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33)

For most of us who served after 9/11, this is the foundation. According to VA, if you qualify for the maximum benefit it covers the full cost of public, in-state tuition and fees. Rates for private schools are capped and updated each year. It also pays a monthly housing allowance if you're in school more than half time, based on the cost of living where your school is, plus a stipend for books and supplies each school year. A couple of things to know: the housing allowance isn't paid during breaks between terms, so plan ahead for those months, and you have to verify your enrollment every month to keep getting it. If your service ended on or after January 1, 2013, your benefits don't expire.

Veteran Readiness and Employment (Chapter 31)

If you have a service-connected disability that limits your ability to work, look into Veteran Readiness and Employment, formerly called Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, or VR&E. VA says it can help you explore employment options, address education or training needs, learn new skills, find a job, or start a business. It's worth a conversation with VA to see if you qualify.

Pell Grants through the FAFSA

A lot of veterans don't realize they can still qualify for federal student aid on top of the GI Bill. Fill out the FAFSA every year. Under federal rules, VA education benefits aren't counted against your other federal aid (Federal Student Aid guidance), so a Pell Grant can stack with your GI Bill. VA's own FAFSA guide warns against a common mistake: don't list your VA education benefits as income on the FAFSA, because it can reduce your need-based aid. For the 2026–27 award year, the maximum Pell Grant is $7,395, according to the Department of Education. Pell is generally for undergraduates, and your award depends on your finances and enrollment.

VA Work-Study

The VA Work Study Program pays you to work part time while you study, and it fits right in with building your resume. You need to be enrolled at least 75% and using an approved VA education benefit, such as the Post-9/11 GI Bill or VR&E. The work has to be related to VA and veterans, for example at your school's veterans office, a VA facility, or a Veterans Service Organization. VA pays the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher. You apply with VA Form 22-8691.

My advice

Use the benefits you earned, file the FAFSA, and treat internships and student jobs as part of your education, not an extra. The skills you bring from the Marine Corps, like discipline, leadership, and working under pressure, carry over. Pair them with real experience during school and you'll be in a strong position when you graduate. Benefit rules change, so always confirm the details with VA and your school's financial aid and veterans services offices.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in Veteran Transition.

When the water cools down on the First Coast, one of my favorite fish to chase is the sheepshead. They're stubborn, they're tricky to hook, and they're some of the best eating fish in Northeast Florida. Here's how I think about them and the rules to know.

Fish the structure

Sheepshead live on structure. Around Jacksonville that means dock pilings, bridge pilings, seawalls, and the rocks at the jetties. They use their teeth to crunch barnacles and crustaceans off hard surfaces, so anywhere covered in growth is worth a look. Get your bait tight to the structure and be ready to lose some rigs.

Bait and technique

Fiddler crabs and shrimp are local favorites. FWC also points out a classic trick: you can scrape barnacles off bridge pilings and let them sink to draw sheepshead in. Barnacles have no size or specified bag limit, and you can harvest up to 100 pounds per person per day with a recreational saltwater license. Just don't scrape barnacles off private docks or structures without the owner's permission (FWC). Oysters are a different story, with closed seasons and harvest-area rules, so don't use them as chum.

The bite is light. Use a small, strong hook and a short leader, keep slack out of your line, and set the hook at the first hint of weight.

FWC sheepshead rules

According to the FWC, sheepshead in Florida's Atlantic and Gulf state waters are open year-round with a 12-inch minimum total length and a daily bag limit of 8 per person. During March and April there's a vessel limit of 50 per trip. Legal gear includes hook and line, cast net, seine, spear, or gig. Snatching is prohibited, and so is using multiple hooks with live or dead natural bait.

Other rules worth knowing this season

If a redfish or trout grabs your bait at the docks instead, Northeast region rules are a redfish slot of 18 to 27 inches with 1 per person and 4 per vessel, and a spotted seatrout slot of 15 to 19 inches with 3 per person and no over-slot fish. Flounder harvest is closed October 15 through November 30, as I covered in my fall fishing post.

Always double-check current FWC regulations before you keep a fish, since they can change. See you on the water.

Sources: FWC: Sheepshead · FWC: Red Drum · FWC: Spotted Seatrout

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in First Coast Fishing.

People ask me why I started The Calm Seas Project. The honest answer: it began as an idea among friends on a fishing trip. We were out on the water, and we realized something a lot of veterans already know. Sometimes the most meaningful conversations happen on the water.

The Calm Seas Project was founded on that belief. In our first four months, the nonprofit raised more than $40,000 to support veterans and first responders. I'm humbled by everyone who believed in the idea that early.

More than fishing

What we do is not simply fishing. It's about bringing veterans and first responders back together, rebuilding connections, supporting mental wellness through shared experiences on the water, and reminding them they're never alone.

Where we've been and where we're going

In April 2026 we hosted a Marine Raider Reunion in Pensacola, held in honor of a fallen Marine Raider brother. Next up is a veterans fishing event in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 6–8, 2026, with eight military veterans.

If you want to learn more or support the mission, visit calmseasproject.org or follow @calmseasproject. Thanks to everyone who has volunteered, donated, or just shown up.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. About The Calm Seas Project. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

Our next Calm Seas Project event is coming up in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 6–8, 2026. We'll welcome eight military veterans for a weekend of fishing, camaraderie, and mental wellness.

The weekend is a chance to step away from everyday stress, reconnect with others who understand, and experience the therapeutic benefits of the water. More than that, it's about building a lasting support network, because the brotherhood continues long after the uniform comes off.

Why we do this

The Calm Seas Project was founded on the belief that sometimes the most meaningful conversations happen on the water. It began as an idea among friends on a fishing trip, and in its first four months the nonprofit raised more than $40,000 to support veterans and first responders.

For us, it's not simply about fishing. It's about bringing veterans and first responders back together and reminding them they're never alone.

Want to support the trip or get involved? Visit calmseasproject.org.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.

Mid-October is one of my favorite times to be on the water in Jacksonville. The heat breaks, the mullet run along the beaches, and the fish start feeding hard ahead of winter. Here's what fall fishing on the First Coast looks like and the rules worth knowing before you go.

Bull reds at the Mayport jetties

October is prime time for big spawning redfish. Mature reds gather at inlets and passes in late summer and early fall, and in Northeast Florida the deep shipping channel where the St. Johns River meets the Atlantic at Mayport gives them the depth and current they want. Salt Water Sportsman describes anglers working the drop-offs along the 40-foot channel and the lower St. Johns. Expect heavy current and heavy sinkers. Most of these fish are well over the slot, so plan on a quick photo and a careful release.

Redfish rules in Northeast Florida

According to the FWC, the Northeast region runs from the Georgia line to New Smyrna Beach. The season is open year-round with an 18 to 27 inch slot, a limit of 1 fish per person per day, and a 4 fish vessel limit. Fish over the slot have to go back.

Trout in the creeks, ICW, and marsh

As the water cools, speckled trout push into the creeks, the Intracoastal, and along the grass edges of the marsh. FWC's spotted seatrout regulations for the Northeast region, which includes the St. Johns River and its tributaries, are open year-round with a 15 to 19 inch slot, 3 fish per person per day, and no fish over 19 inches kept.

Heads up: flounder close October 15

Fall is when flounder head toward the inlets, but harvest is closed. The FWC closes flounder every year from October 15 through November 30, and the rest of the year the minimum is 14 inches with 5 per person. If one hits your bait at the jetty rocks this fall, release it.

Why I keep coming back

Fall on the water is a big part of why The Calm Seas Project exists. A few quiet hours on the marsh or at the jetties does a lot for people. Our veterans fishing weekend in Jacksonville is coming up November 6 to 8. Always check current FWC regulations before you keep a fish, since they change.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in First Coast Fishing.

From April 9–12, 2026, The Calm Seas Project hosted a Marine Raider Reunion in Pensacola, Florida. Marine Special Operations veterans came from across the country for fishing, remembrance, and brotherhood.

In honor of a fallen Marine Raider brother

The reunion was held in honor of a fallen Marine Raider brother, celebrating his life, his service, and his impact on the Marine Raider community.

Brothers back together

Many of the guys reconnected with brothers they hadn't seen in years. We spent time on the water, shared stories, laughed, and took time to reflect. We were blessed with beautiful weather and excellent fishing.

Thank you

We're deeply grateful to the donors, local businesses, fishing captains, and supporters who made this possible, including Falfurrias Management Partners for supporting veteran accommodations.

This weekend showed what our mission is all about: bringing veterans together, rebuilding connections, and supporting mental wellness through shared experiences on the water. Learn more at calmseasproject.org.

Written by Ryan Gunning, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, University of Alabama graduate, and founder of The Calm Seas Project in Jacksonville, FL. More in The Calm Seas Project News Bulletin.