I am here on a mission. I have been dispatched by a group (of which I am not actually a member) to act as a liaison - an ambassador - an emissary, if you will. My mission is to attempt to facilitate understanding between your people and mine; in an effort to head off the war which your leaders seem hell-bent on continuing with my people. The group is the Molon Labe Division of the Missouri Unorganized Militia. Some will think this is fiction, some may see this as a manifesto - perhaps some may be here on their own mission and will see this as simply a misinformation campaign. I assure you this is a true story and will unfold in my diary entries as the days, weeks and months progress.
Let me tell you how this has come about and perhaps a bit about myself in order to lend to your understanding. I was raised a simple country boy, the youngest child of twelve; from parents both of whom were ministers. My father was a professional musician and a WWII Navy vet as well as being ordained and left us when I was quite young. We grew up very poor, moving from one farmstead to another, never on our own land but rather in a series of rented farmhouses or country parsonages - the itinerent life of a minister's family in the Methodist Church which never leaves its pastors for too long in the same parish, having a tradition of circuit preachers. Being poor, we grew our own food in large gardens and hunted and fished for most of the meat which sustained us. Of course, everyone else we knew was poor as well (perhaps not quite as poor as us), so our hand-me-down or thrift shop clothing was not out of place and a life traipsing the fields and woods in search of supper was not a bad thing for a young boy.
I learned to shoot well before I learned to ride a bike and at the age of 17, having completed high school, the government put that skill to use. I was the Company high shooter (of about 600 recruits) in boot camp in San Diego where I turned 18 while at the rifle range. I subsequently was sent to Infantry Training School and filled a variety of 'grunt' billets from basic rifleman, a machinegunner in an M60 platoon and as a machinegun squad leader in a Heavy Machine Gun platoon, firing the M2 .50 calibre machine gun. I was an instructor/unit leader at the School of Infantry where I shot the service rifle and pistol competitively, leading to being sent to Scout/Sniper school (after also getting airborne qualified at the Army jump school in Ft. Benning). I went on to serve as a platoon sergeant and platoon commander of various infantry platoons and also was tasked to be a Camp Commandant of a concentration camp billeting Cuban refugees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I served in combat in three separate theaters, the details of which are inconsequential to my mission today. I am no hero, have made my share of mistakes, as all do and share my background as a means of letting you know where I come from.
Upon separation from the Corps I sold real estate, leading to owning a real estate brokerage specializing in both residential and commercial real estate as well as constructing both single family and multi-family housing. I sold my brokerage in 2003, returning to my home, anticipating the housing crisis (not a difficult prediction for anyone paying attention). Today I live on a small homestead where I grow the majority of my family's food and raise organic meat and eggs. Like my father I am a musician and vocalist, playing a variety of instruments, none particularly well, in my own estimation, but well enough to play in local bar bands. I mention this because it was while playing a local benefit gig that my mission began.
(Pete shakes the dust off his boots with a clear conscience...)