Terrain View - An Unforgiving Landscape, and Raging Storm, on the "Transition Battlefield"​

Have You Got Your Map, Chart, & Compass?

It's Thor's day, and we're blowing the bunker covers off with an overview of the "Transition Battlefield Landscape." It's the aerial view of the terrain we'll be flying over in our Liberator Airplane, and bombing the transition LIEs with Inconvenient Truths!

Listen here (~9:27 minutes at 1x speed, or 4:13 minutes at 2x speed!)

A Short Story

But first, a story on how this all came to be. As a naval logistician with experience in operational planning, the 22/day pushup challenge two years ago, leading up to Memorial Day 2020, prompted me to push back against the status quo.

I asked myself a short question: "Are we doing transition right?"

I instantly recognized that, "No!", we'd gotten it all backwards.

"Transition" wasn't, and isn't, the problem. It's intentional, informed planning well before transition, and transformation, that requires attention.

Instead of reacting to that inevitable departure from the ranks, why aren't we ready for it? The family unit would be much better off if truly ready for transition and the necessary transformation, and ready from the earliest days in service.

The contrarian thought with this is: if we're deployment ready, then by default, we're transition ready, too, and so is our Armed Forces Family.

My community in the Navy, the U.S. Navy Supply Corps, has a motto: "Ready for Sea." It's a motivational, "career-focused" motto that reinforces servicemember readiness to deploy on a moments notice, at the expense of most everything else.

Service above self. That psychological makeover we get in training and have reinforced through years of toxic culture.

I lived by that motto since 2003.

And it cost me dearly.

A more balanced motto is "Ready for Life."

That's what the Liberty Accelerator is all about. Being not only "Ready for Sea" but also "Ready for Life," too.

An Overview of the "Terrain"

There's so much focus on jobs in this arena that many other important aspects are being neglected, and sometimes forgotten altogether. It's as though the only thing being viewed is straight out the windshield of that DoD TAP bus, using a fifty-year old map.

There is a simple solution to this challenge: apply the Art of War concepts from operational planning to the inevitable "military transition" every #servicemember and #militaryspouse will eventually experience. And do so from the earliest days in service, with every deployment and every redeployment. At staff assignments and operational ass-kickings.

As a logistician and supply chain management professional, I wondered why not treat the Armed Forces Family unit as the weapons system that it is...and apply the ideas of Life-Cycle Logistics and the deployment workup cycle to their journey through military service?

As we say often in the profession: Logistics wins the War...and it's no different with #militarytransition.

Having an understanding of the tactics helps win your battles, too.

These ideas are an important part of true readiness.

It's that simple. Here's a visual from the book:

In applying operational art and life-cylce logistics processes and structure to "military transition," I required some structure.

Three overarching areas containing categories within each intertwine and coexist.

They must be acknowleged and addressed in parallel like we fight on the battlefield after strenuous planning, preprations, and workups. They can't be addressed in sequence like we march in single file picking up our helmets and skivvies at basic training indoctrination. No, they must be spread out and identified on the charts, identified well ahead of the battle beginning:

Life Pillars

• Whole Health and Wellness matters; and intentional medical records management in prepration for the inevitable VA Compensation Rating exams.

• Self Actualization and answering the extremely important questions: "Who are you? What do you do and why should anyone care?"

• Wealth Ideas concenring time, knowledge, experience, personal balance sheet management, cash flow sources, money aptitude and financial literacy that you didn't learn K-12, and got no introduction from in college, at any level. And, no, the base Family Readiness Center government service employee has not set you up for financial success.

• Relationships and the fact that it's no longer who you know in this world, but who knows you, likes you, and trusts you enough to do business with you - whether that's on the paying end or receiving end of any business transaction.

Work Pillars (Pursuit of Happiness?)

• Jobs and this dynamic, evolving market for goods and services that few of us have any control over. It's a new age, and applying the outdated ideas and approaches touted by the "influencers" over the past decade will likely not see you through the 20's happily.

• Expense of efforts and energy from our lives in work and leisure day after day, week after week, month to month that turns into seasons and then years. Is your expense worth the effort and energy? Is it a great investment of your precious, limited time?

• Taxes are sucking the life right out of most everyone's lives, unless you're part of the filthy rich who've been able to keep much more of the wealth they've transferred away from your hard earned pay. If reading this, I doubt that's you.

Liberty Pillars

• The ideas of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness put forth over 200 years ago in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America are the glue that tie the previous seven ideas together in this movement and Call to Action to take your Liberty back. The goal is being fully ready to embrace it when the opportunity presents itself, planned or otherwise.

• Autonomy and Independence. There's no independence within the mindset of the Department of Dependence that Uncle Sam coddled you in. Even without a pension, the mind-makeover you got in miltiary service is extreme, and requires a transformation to get out of that box you were placed in.

• Self-sufficiency and Sovereignity - This is being able to get along in a complicated and dangerous world, and keep your wits about you. It's a self-exploration journey where the individual embraces responsibility for themselves.

Don't get ambushed believing the lies we've been told about military service, about transition, or about most anything, really. It's a much more complicated world than you've been led to believe.

The LIEs perpetuated throughout the ranks are setting every Armed Forces Family up to get sniped or hit by a mine they didn't know existed because they believed that "transition was for later" or that the government TAP had their best interest in mind.

The Liberty Accelerator Program prevents the heartache from a lack of proper planning in advance.

This series is to warn you that transition isn't for later, and that your belief in a government program taking care of your family is a big gamble. Do you believe the DoD TAP is unlike any other government program you've ever encountered? That includes the Veteran's Affairs programs, too.

Continue believing the lies to your peril. I'll be here when the scales fall from your eyes, and the Zeitgeist we're in jolts you into reality. Learn a bit more about me at this link, where you can spread the word about the movement, too!

Get bragging rights that you heard about it before your buddy or BFF by sharing it with them, right now.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are counting on you.

To Your Liberty,

🗽

P.s. be sure to check in on the weekday posts each morning where you'll find tips and tricks to avoid the ambushes on the transition battlefield! It's way different and much more dangerous than that from the 2010's.