It’s time to forge ahead. I’m wishing the best for all my former colleagues at Military.com. You guys rock.

I’ve had a front-row seat to this changing world. Journalism is a tough profession, especially now. The industry has been run into the ground, reporters have been vilified by the public. But it’s worth it. What we do as journalists matters.

I was a minor celebrity for a few days after exposing Brian Williams’ tall tales. I walked the halls of the Pentagon and asked tough questions at press briefings. I saw the Department of Defense become the Department of War.

I’ve gotten to cover corruption in the Florida Keys and walked with U.S. troops in Iraq. I uncovered a murder plot in the Philippines that led to the arrest of the killer. I hounded John McCain on Capitol Hill.

I’m not sure where I’ll go from here. This is the first time in my career that I’ve been unemployed. My greatest hope is to continue doing journalism and working with reporters. I got my first full-time reporter job right after Sept. 11, 2001. I’ve been blessed to have worked ever since.

It was a pleasure working with each and every one, and a great stroke of luck to get them all together in one newsroom.

We had the best team of reporters in the business – Tom Novelly, Konstantin Toropin, Rebecca Kheel, Steve Beynon, Patricia Kime, Drew Lawrence, Rich Sisk. I’m indebted to them for all their dogged reporting.

And most of all, I was lucky to be surrounded by good people who really cared about each other. Thanks so much to Zach Fryer-Biggs for hiring me and believing I could be a good editor. Katy O’Hara was an amazing copy editor and saved me many times – couldn’t have done it without her.

In our own small way, I like to think we made the world a little better – more transparent, more fair.