The Oath Outlives the Uniform
A few stray thoughts on Veterans Day and gratitude for hardships that shape a man’s life
Author’s Note: On my new publishing schedule, I have not been posting on Tuesdays. Since today is Veterans Day, I had a lot on my mind and am sharing this reflection with my entire readership. Thank you for reading.
Not only am I glad I served, I am glad I got out. When I put in my paperwork to call it a career, it was 2013, and there was no end in sight to a conflict I no longer believed was winnable - or even fought for the right reasons. I had hoped my one tour there, in the surge of 2010-11, would be my one and only and that the Army would shift to a new mission in a rapidly changing world. My commander was upset with me when I made the call to move in a different direction, gave me an underwhelming evaluation, and packaged me off to ride out my time at the brigade headquarters.
Had I stayed in longer, I was a logical choice to command my brigade’s Military Intelligence Company and would probably earn an early look for promotion to Major in 2016. I’d be coming up on 18 years of service next spring, wearing the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (like my dad did), and instead of figuring out where to jump into the rat race as I did as a young man a dozen years ago, would be thinking about whether I wanted to chase the full Colonel rank or look at retirement options.
I took the leap of faith instead, following the convictions Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined filled me with.
None of my sentiments that drove me to leave the service fill me with regret that I served. In fact, you wouldn’t be reading my newsletter without it, and I most certainly wouldn’t have been able to withstand the pressure of worldwide scrutiny for the past five years as the fight for election integrity has raged on. Even though I was just a company grade officer when I left the service, my duties forced me to:
Regularly brief and be pressed for answers by officers far senior to me
Build the most widely read intelligence summary in western Afghanistan, almost from scratch
Tough out the loss of my father while deployed, building personal resilience and mental toughness
Learn from failure, build discipline, and learn how to make the mission work with insufficient manpower, time, and resources
Most importantly, I’m glad I served because it allowed me to have a special connection with my father in his last two years of life. He saw his son in a different light once I took the oath of office and we connected in a way I had never known him until he died on September 7, 2010. I encourage all of you to read about the time he shifted my perspective to one of gratitude when I was trying to tell him the promotion to First Lieutenant was no big deal.
On the Lesson of a Lifetime - 14 Years in the Making
14 years ago today, I received my first promotion in the Army after having commissioned on May 9, 2008, as a Second Lieutenant. This promotion was to the rank of First Lieutenant, and it didn’t change much. While that rank is one grade more senior than Second Lieutenant, there is little change to pay, status, or overall responsibilities. All First Li…
My career in the Army isn’t going to be documented in any hall of extraordinary combat achievements. I’m no Audie Murphy - I never even earned the Combat Action Badge for direct enemy contact, nor did I do multiple combat tours like many of my peers did. All of us came back different; some of my closest friends have physical or mental trauma related to direct and frequent contact with the enemy. All of us have had to reconcile demons between the ears, which impact even those in combat support dealing with 24/7/365 management of stress and conflict.
But without my career - I think I’d be working in a field that doesn’t apply the skillset God gave me for fighting back against darkness. I see the big picture of the fight for freedom and liberty, and don’t let the setbacks get to me like I would without the proper perspective. To my right in my office I have a diploma accepting me as an established member of the Military Intelligence Corps, presented to me upon graduation from my branch training in 2009. It reads:
A soldier first, but an intelligence professional second to none with great pride in our heritage and a focus on the future. An intelligence soldier who performed the first task of the Army - to find, know, and never lose the enemy - with a sense of urgency and tenacity, professionalism, physical fitness, and above all integrity - for in Truth Lies Victory.
Next year, The American War on Election Corruption will release, and if God wills it, may serve as the most compelling call for reform released to date regarding the loss of integrity over our most important process. Yesterday, I received the draft of Newt Gingrich’s foreword to the book, and was humbled beyond belief to read his words. Here is an excerpt:
The American War on Election Corruption provides the comprehensive, specific, and detailed framework necessary for every American concerned about the future of our representative government. Keshel’s knowledge and forecasting skill, rooted in the rigor of military intelligence, offer us a clear-eyed view of what has gone right, what has gone wrong, where the broken laws and anomalies exist, and, most importantly, what we must do to restore and maintain integrity in our electoral systems.
Rachel and I have a dream to help veterans one day in a big way, and are putting plans in motion to see if God pushes us in that direction. If we have headway soon, I will announce the plans. As the son of a veteran, brother to two more, and uncle of another, military service runs in our DNA. I consider it my duty to give back not only to veterans, but to all who love and support the armed forces, and could not walk away from continued service when I knew our country was in jeopardy.
My Dad came back from Vietnam in a physical sense. But much of him remained over there, stuck in the jungles and trapped in the grip of things he couldn’t shake. My service brought us together at the end of his life, then prepared me for what it was I would spend my late thirties and now, early forties, doing. Even with life’s many pitfalls and my own personal failures, I’ve managed to stumble my way into a greater personal life than I’d ever imagined - and I see a clear tie to the first career I had out of college. For that, I give thanks that all circumstances pushed me to serve, and for all men and women who have stepped up to the plate to preserve this, the last best hope of man on Earth.
Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. His analytical method of election forecasting and analytics is known worldwide, and he has been commended by President Donald J. Trump for his work in the field.
Indeed… the last hope of man on Earth. Your depth of insight, and skills at transforming them into understandable words, are consistently reliable and increasingly appreciated by more and more readers. Thank you, and to all veterans / active duty who allow every American to live in a free country – whether those who benefit are grateful or not.
Thank you for your service sir! And thank you for your continued service with our elections. --sb