Last week, I released a slide of an overview of Garmsir district in Helmand Province. For those unaware, I’ve been covering 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines' (2/1) deployment to Garmsir in 2010-11. You can check out that post here.

I figured I’d do some public brainstorming for the way ahead.

I decided to go more in-depth with these unit requests. Instead of just posting photos and videos, I want to do some research and provide some substance. Some meat and potatoes instead of dessert. Long-term goal is to maybe one day publish a book, or a series of books. For now, I’m just researching and posting photos.

I tried Substack with this page, and well, I just don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze. If I had unlimited time, sure. I’d do both IG posts and Substack. But with my time limited as it is, I think putting work into slides is worth more than a long-form essay on Substack. More people will read and ultimately learn about the subject at hand instead of having to click a link and read a long-ass novel.

Next up is Garmsir in the ’80s. A book that I’m reading, War Comes to Garmser, has some very interesting material that I’ll be using. Of course, reading this book has slowed me down getting through 2/1. And that’s another thing I struggle with. Feeling like I’m pressed to release stuff.

At the end of the day, that’s an apple I’m going to have to eat (is that a saying?). I’d rather take my sweet ass time getting through 2/1 if it means providing more in-depth and useful content. In the meantime, I’ve been posting other unit request photos just to prevent the inbox from clogging up and to vary the posts.