Dispensing with Pleasantries

I begin this journey at a crossroads in my life. For the past five years I have been an avid student of military history at Ole Miss, or the University of Mississippi to the "enlightened" crowd. As an undergraduate, perhaps because of my grandfather's service in the US Navy, I pursued research interests in naval aviation and sea power theory. During this research process my advisor informed me that I possessed both the talent and intellect that makes a good historian and he encouraged me to enter graduate school. Not entirely enamoured with going to law school at this point, I decided to take his advice. Unfortunately, like most universities, the history faculty at UM was devoid of a "trained" military historian. Not good if that's what your looking to study. Yet because of factors beyond my control, which I will discuss in a coming post, I chose to pursue an MA at Ole Miss anyway, as I was promised that the MA program could give me a firm grounding in historical methodology despite the absence of a military historian.

The first year of graduate school was miserable. It wasn't especially hard, and my grades were good, but I was forced to study aspects of history that didn't interest me in the least. I've never quit anything before in my life though, so I didn't intend to start then. The second year was better as I was able to take an independent course from a professor who understood my predicament and I was able to pursue readings more attuned to my interests. This semester however, I am writing my thesis on the "Revolt of the Admirals" which enables me to revisit my interests in sea power and naval aviation history. At some point though, the thesis will be completed and my life will move into its next stage. If that next stage was to include a Ph.D.in military history though, I would need to apply somewhere else, and I did.

At this point, March 26, I am still waiting to hear from that institution. The application was due on December 1st of last year. Funny that my law school application was due on March first and a decision was reached by the 9th and I'm still waiting on the military history program. However, for a number of reasons, I have decided to leave academia for the UM School of Law.

Yet I am still fascinated with military history and national security They have played an enormous role in my life in the past few years and I love discussing them. This blog is an attempt to maintain that connection. So with background out of the way, it's time to blog. Brace yourselves for a tsunami of brilliance.