You always look at things a different way after you’re back. A quiet street to regular people becomes a potential danger zone of booby traps or ambushes waiting to happen. It’s not that you expect it to happen, or see it happening– that’s a bit further down the rabbit hole– it’s just that you see an ordinary scene and imagine how it could be transformed. You see the terrible potential that could be had.

I love to go hiking, but even in the fresh air, the buzz of bees going about their bee business, the lazy clouds and smell of pine or sage… I still sometimes find myself casually contemplating how this place or that would be an absolutely awesome place for a machinegun team, and how you could bring a whole Battalion to a crawl if necessary.