My name is Andrew Jackson (no relation) and I’m a married, mid-forties father and entrepreneur working as a risk manager for hire.  I have 27 years military experience beginning with an active duty stint as an 11B (Infantryman) in the 82nd Airborne Division and am currently a Reserve field grade Military Intelligence Officer.  I am a Command & General Staff School Graduate (now known by the hideous moniker…”Intermediate Level Education”).  I live in a small town in the American Midwest, a long way from the “American Redoubt” and the super-volcano it sits on.

I built my first cache at age 12 and have had an interest in survival and preparedness ever since.  I believe that self-reliance is a journey, not a destination.

I approach the study of preparedness, risk, enemy capabilities, economics, politics, the rise and fall of cultures/civilizations and just about everything else from a systems perspective.

I have traveled on four continents, seen and studied failing and failed states… and in case you were wondering I have changed a diaper, planned an invasion (part of one anyway), butchered game, conned a boat (but not a ship), designed a building, written a sonnet, balanced accounts (not my favorite activity), built a wall, comforted the dying, taken orders, given orders, cooperated, acted alone, solved equations, analyzed quite a few new problems, pitched manure, programmed a computer (TRS-80 counts…right), cooked many a tasty meal, and fought efficiently.  Kudos to fellow Midwesterner Robert Heinlein but I have yet to set a bone and hope never to be forced to die gallantly.  I am a generalist.

As I freely comment on political and social issues…here’s fair warning.  I am fiscally conservative, socially liberal (in the classical sense of live & let live) and feel that the government that governs least…governs best.  All political commentary on U.S. domestic policy/government should be accepted in the manner that it is presented…as comments from the loyal opposition…no matter which party is in power.