"I was a historian, and I had way too many monographs and articles by professional historians on my 'to read' pile. Reading fiction was a luxury I could ill afford. Now I was reading fiction without any guilt whatsoever. It was liberating.The whole New Georgia Guide experience was liberating. When I was finished with the 40-page essay, my whole attitude as a professional historian had changed. I no longer felt confined to my scholarly cloister. There was a bigger world out there that needed to be sampled and tasted."  
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"My time with Catholic University's History Department played a key role in my career choices and success. During my sophomore year, Dr. Wakelyn took his American Civil War class on a Saturday field trip to Manassas National Battlefield Park. It seemed like a long way from DC! The ranger-led tour was inspiring and we had a great day. About twenty-five years later, I was the Chairman of the Prince William County Sesquicentennial Committee of the American Civil War. In this role I helped to plan five years of programming including the 150th anniversary event at the Manassas Battlefield."
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"In the past decade, I also had opportunities to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, I served for a year as command historian during 1st U.S. Cavalry Division's deployment as the command and control element of the Multi-National Division Baghdad, Iraq. Five years later, I deployed for the Corps on a three-month history collection mission to the Transatlantic Afghanistan District, Bagram Air Force Base, Afghanistan. Finally, in June, I returned to Iraq for a short three-week stint to  document the mission of the Corps' Mosul Dam Task Force."
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