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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 135 · Thursday, 12 November 2026

Veterans

Homeless veterans receive 10% off cardboard boxes this Veterans Day

Home Depot and Lowe's announce new discount on temporary shelter for America's heroes

Hegseth asks staff to make next execution more like ‘The Running Man’

Pete Hegseth picks wrong week to stop drinking

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Vol. 15 · No. 135

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Duffel Blog

Established 2012 · Deployed worldwide

Vol. 15 · No. 135 · Deployed worldwide

Thursday

12 November 2026

1247 Zulu

Next edition Friday

← Front page
· Page 2

Retired sergeant major discovers freedom is free

Filed · 1537

BOULDER, Colo. — Peering over his white picket fence, wearing a red flannel shirt, Stetson, and leather boots, retired Sgt. Maj. Michael Wilson, now a small business owner in Colorado, reports that life after the military has “shattered the very foundation” of what he “believed to be true about freedom in America.”

“When I was a new private, only seventeen, I remember my drill sergeant putting his boot on my head, pushing my face into the mud, and telling me that I had no rights, that I was his bitch, and that I had to earn my freedom,” Wilson said with a hint of nostalgia.

“For 35 years I believed freedom was earned, not given,” Wilson continued. “But then I retired and discovered the truth: freedom is free for everyone in America, and it’s fucking awesome.”

Wilson, who recently opened a marijuana smoke shop called “Float To Blaze Town,” spoke while stroking a wild, unkempt beard.

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