MTMcGurk
banner
mtmcgurk.bsky.social
MTMcGurk
@mtmcgurk.bsky.social
IWI Fellow 2025. Views are my own and do not represent DoD or the Irregular Warfare Initiative.

Dad, Army Recruiter, aspiring historian, poet, #irregularwarfare, #writing #poet. #cats #LetsGoPens 🐧 #library #milsky

It’s a great day to recruit!
26/2025 Truth to Tell: Notes from my White House Education by Lanny J Davis.

This was a “read a book outside of your comfort zone” pick. No idea how this ended up in my family. I felt a lot of anger reading this.

The advice is sound: just tell the truth and don’t hide it.
November 9, 2025 at 10:18 AM
25/2025 How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens

Mind blown 🤯 Zettelkasten method seems the way to go for me. I’ve already made slip box 🗃️ notes for this book and am seeing connections already.

So many connections to other things I’ve read. (That’s the point.)
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Christmas came early.
November 4, 2025 at 3:50 PM
November 2, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Post a perfect album from the 90’s that isn’t Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains.
October 29, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Tortie club assemble!
October 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM
24/2025 Composite Nation by Frederick Douglass

This pamphlet is masterful in its conviction and power. They resonate in 2025, and his original speech was made in 1869. #America
October 26, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Pepper says hi 👋🏽
October 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
As the #GBBO judges might say, “A bit rough and ready. Let’s hope it tastes good.”

🍎 🥧
October 21, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Toddler: I wanna sing Mickey!

Me: *Starts singing “Come along and sing a song and join the jamboree.
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E” (and other verses)

Mrs: How do you know that song again? 🤨🤔 you said you didn’t grow up watching anything Mickey Mouse…

Me: 😬
October 21, 2025 at 3:03 AM
October 18, 2025 at 5:43 PM
As with many things in history, it has lead me to this:
October 13, 2025 at 10:46 PM
What’s everyone reading this week? #histbookchat #Milsky #books #CivilWar
October 13, 2025 at 1:28 PM
A bookstore in Salt Lake City just got my business @charlesesdaile.bsky.social #histbookchat

Tag your Napoleonic Wars aficionados!
October 11, 2025 at 2:51 AM
“However, the spring of 1918 was a lunatic time and lunatic things kept happening.”

Richard Goldhurst with an absolute banger intro.
October 7, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Oh you went full into it!

For fiction, the “Sharpe’s Rifles” series is great fun
October 6, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Funny you mention that …@roninresearch.bsky.social @dienekes.bsky.social
October 5, 2025 at 11:47 PM
23/2025
The Splintered Empires by @dienekes.bsky.social, book 4 in the FWW Eastern Front series.

So many things I had no idea about: The German support to Finland’s “White Guards,” German amphib ops onto Estonian islands, the madness and uncertainty of the Russian revolution, the assault on Riga.
October 4, 2025 at 8:41 PM
That’s an excellent way to spend a sick day.

Pepper wants the same.
September 23, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Yeah that’s a great view to start the run.
September 21, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Working my way through these! I started with The German Way of War.
September 21, 2025 at 2:34 AM
22/2025 The Path to Blitzkrieg by Robert M. Citino

#HistbookChat

Illuminating read into the creativity, thought, and relentless training of the post-FWW German Army. They didn’t rest on their laurels. He makes a compelling argument that rearmament was a Weimar phenomenon; the Army played its part.
September 21, 2025 at 12:20 AM
21/2025 The Fort Bragg Cartel by Seth Harp

I’ve been at Fort Bragg twice.
Unfortunately, some of this is familiar. A lot of it is new. “Troubled” is an understatement.

Read this and read the SOCOM ethics review below and make your own assessment.

Sources / footnotes / endnotes would have helped
September 20, 2025 at 9:57 PM