I’ve been reading How Did I Get Here? for only a short while, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs. Author Jason Grose, also known as Viper, is a 39 year old Marine living in San Diego, CA. Jason is married with two teenage children. How Did I Get Here? is a collection of his personal thoughts and stories. The archives date all the way back to 1997!

It’s no secret that I love to laugh, and Jason’s blog often makes me do just that. In browsing the archives today, I discovered a page dedicated to the 1980s – the “decade that molded Jason’s thinking, or at least his fashion sense”. If you’d like to have an incredible laugh, read the post about his exciting trip to an Izod store.

I’d also like to share two of my other favorite posts.

In You Look Like, Jason compared himself and his family to their celebrity look-alikes. The photo resemblances are uncanny – and extremely funny!

SOCAL Sunset contains some of the most beautiful, breathtaking photos I’ve ever seen – taken from the beach near Jason’s home.

How Did I Get Here? does contain lots of interesting and humorous posts, but it’s also a real-life diary of a very honorable man who has been serving our country for 21 years. Jason will be soon be leaving for an unaccompanied tour in Saudi Arabia, where he will be training the Royal Saudi Marines. He chose to take this assignment so that his family would not be uprooted once again. He plans to retire once he returns to the States.

Just last week, Jason wrote one the most beautiful, touching posts I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Titled Bravo Indeed, it told the story of how he had worn his USMC Service “B” uniform for the very last time. After removing it, he drove to the cleaners. If you’re wondering why he’d take a shirt he’ll never again wear to be cleaned, I’ll let Jason tell you. “Of course I’m going to clean it before I put it away for the last time. Call it respect or whatever but it will not finish its duty as a dirty, khaki heap somewhere in the back of my closet. It will be hung with care and appreciation as the Cloth of the Nation by a grateful man proud I was allowed to wear it with pride for over two decades.” Those words make me tear up each time I read them.

I have no doubt that you will love Jason’s blog just as much as I do. And I hope that you’ll take a few minutes to visit and wish him the very best of luck and a safe, speedy return from Saudi Arabia.

Categories: Military, Personal, Reviews