CHAPTER THREE—21ST CENTURY

 

For the past seven-plus years I’d been a professor of history at Nevada State University in Las Vegas. Specifically, a professor of history in Middle Eastern studies specializing in the Second Temple period and early Christian era, 516 BC-395 CE. In the military, I’d taken a shine to military history and spent a lot of time deployed reading about the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, and Persians. The foundation for much of our military tactics and strategies today.

As the saying goes, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” and I was no exception. I’d seen the inhumanity of man up close, personal, and with all its horror. Fortunately, in that time I’d met and fallen in love with a wonderful woman of faith who’d kept me grounded and sane. Anna was the best thing that had ever happened to me. It was she who, without encouragement, yet encouraged me to go back to school and pursue my bachelor’s, master’s, and eventually my Ph.D. in history.

After a 20-year career in the military, Anna and I had planned on retiring in Las Vegas where I would teach, and she could finally put down roots. Less than a year after I retired Anna was diagnosed with cancer and died a lingering, painful death a year later. Read the rest of this entry