Last night, I made a simple request on X. I asked if anybody visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day would stop by Alan’s grave and leave a photo for our family. What happened next honestly caught me off guard. By this afternoon, dozens of Americans from all walks of life had made the walk to Section 60 to visit SSG Alan W. Shaw. Veterans. Families. Complete strangers. People who had never met Alan, but chose to honor him anyway. For one day on social media, people put aside the constant noise and negativity and came together for something bigger than themselves. My notifications filled with photos, kind messages, prayers, and stories from people honoring not just Alan, but so many of our fallen heroes. I don’t think people fully understand what moments like this mean to Gold Star families. The fear is never just losing them. It’s losing them slowly over time as the world moves on and fewer people remember their name. But today showed me that Alan will never be forgotten. After years of watching social media reward some of the worst parts of humanity, today gave me a reminder that the good is still out there too. Thank you to every single person who stopped by to visit Alan today, said his name, shared his story, or took a moment to honor the fallen. This right here is the America Alan knew and loved enough to fight and die for. And today, y’all showed us all that it’s still here and it’s still worth fighting for. 🇺🇸

Grandson #2 arrived today. I love these boys so much! #blessed

The deadliest threat to First Responders is Heart Disease. The Kickstarter for our film CODE RED: A CARDIAC WAKE UP CALL is Now Live. Will you help us get this film made by contributing? Through the power of storytelling, we can Identify the Risk & Protect the Heart.

Armorers preparing the Doolittle Raid bombers aboard USS Hornet, 18 Apr 1942

Can any of my #avgeek friends identify this aircraft? ADS-B Exchange says it is a 2012 747-8 with a serial # 25-5550. It flew over the house a little while ago.

After Edinburgh we visited Stonehaven & used it as a base to see Scotland. We took the train from Edinburgh to London & stopped in York. I don't know UK geography that well, but I am learning! Scotland in summer is like my part of Texas in Winter, but wetter.

I hate that Team USA lost tonight. Congratulations to Venezuala! What an entertaining game! #worldbaseballclassic

THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA 🤠🤣🛢️

Driving home from Thanksgiving, I was listening to this with my son & had to pull the car over. It hit that hard. @jockowillink said that being prior enlisted meant he learned to “speak E-5.” Then he became an officer and had to learn to “speak officer.” Later, as an admiral’s aide, he learned to “speak GOFO.” He became trilingual. That’s his unfair advantage. It hit me: that’s the single greatest factor behind every success I’ve had in my life. Early in my career I learned this the hard way. The hardest way possible. My father was dying. My grades at USNA weren’t great but above the line. My roommate, a young Black mid with a 0.8 GPA, got summoned to the Admiral. His congressman had prepped him taught him exactly what to say, how to frame his struggle, how to speak “FOGO” He walked out with an emergency summer tutoring plan. A week later it was my turn. The Chaplain told the Superintendent about my dad & he wanted a meeting. “Family is most important,” he said. “Go home and be with him.” I got angry. I told him the best thing for my dad’s health was me graduating. He didn’t budge. I thought he didn’t care. I didn’t understand the language he was speaking. Years later I learned Adm Larson was quietly pushing certain groups out & keeping others in. But I’ve never blamed him or DEI or anything but my inability to speak flag officer. I took ownership. The truth was simple: coming from an enlisted family, I could barely speak ‘officer,’ never mind ‘admiral.’ I got a Presidential nomination & didn’t have a congressman to teach me the FO dialect. Bill Clinton sure as hell wasn’t calling to coach me. So I left for @MaritimeCollege, with a much lower reputation but a higher attrition rate & more difficult course load. In the Merchant Marine my career exploded. Captain. Youngest Distinguished Alumnus. Guinness World Records. Bestselling book. Built the most visited maritime website in the world. Now I’m worth millions and have a life I couldn’t have imagined, a beautiful family, my work makes an impact on the maritime world. I’m blessed but I still think about that horrible day in the Admirals office every day (which is why my haters always bring it up). I motivates me. My secret? I became a student of languages. All of them Most captains avoid the engine room I practically lived in it. Learned how engineers think & talk. Earned favors. I sat in union halls just to absorb how unions talk. Spent nights in drilling shacks offshore listening to that culture. Took ships with international crews Moved to Silicon Valley to embed myself with early Facebook employees. Embedded with NYT and NPR reporters—NOT enjoyable— because I wanted to learn the language of the people who shape narratives. More recently, I’ve been in DC learning how the top civilian leaders talk. And now my son is studying aeronautics and space. My advice to him is simple: Join the rocket club. Join the startup club. Sit in on nuclear engineering classes. Hang out at the ATC simulator. You don’t have to be the top 1% in any of these fields. You need to speak just enough of their language to call one of the top 1% and make them want to help you. That’s the real secret Communication is a perishable skill. I write long posts and editorials every day because I never want to stand in front of a GOFO again and lose an opportunity to simply be understood. So here’s the lesson: Be at least trilingual. Learn the enlisted language. Learn the officer language. Learn the executive language. Don’t get trapped inside your comfort zone. People say, “I’ll never be CEO. I’m not ruthless or connected enough.” Fine. You don’t need the job. You just need to be able to stop the CEO as the elevator doors close & explain, clearly in HIS language, why your idea matters. You do that by volunteering to serve coffee in the board room. That’s it. That’s all you need. And Jocko’s right the SECNAV does notice. His office called me Tuesday to “discuss” my frigate post 😜

Even in challenging times, I’m reminded of how much God has given us to be thankful for.

Officer Kwaun Shaw of Crowley needs a kidney donor due to stage 5 renal failure. wfaa.com/article/news/health…

We have a spiritual problem in our country.

You'll learn more by listening for 5 minutes than you'll learn in a lifetime of talking.

If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing. #Leadership #Pilotspeaker #Soar2Success

On May 8th 1957 a T-33 made an emergency landing on Texas State Highway 171 northwest of Cleburne. Pilot said his plane ran low on fuel and was having radio trouble, couldn't reach Carswell and decided to sit down on the highway. I drove by the the location this weekend.

Enjoying some time off crusing in Glacier Bay National Park. It's freezing, but the scenery is spectacular!

How you deal with a mistake is actually more telling than the mistake itself. buff.ly/ej6q08T

Yesterday my boy and I continued our tradition of going to opening day. The game didn't go how we wanted, but it was a good game. Tonight, we have perfect weather to sit on the porch with a fire and watch the game.

At a high school basketball game in Michigan, both teams and the entire audience went completely silent — all to help a blind player make a shot. Life is a team game. 👍