"That's my philosophy: A $100 shine on a $3 pair of boots... I don't think I've ever been this happy.."

Effective immediately, our Features Editor, Shawn "Ox" Stanford has begun a 15-month sabbatical, during which time he will be known as Sergeant Shawn Stanford, Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Along with this promotion comes a choice duty assignment someplace in the CENTCOM AOR testing General Barnake's EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle project (seen here during a test run in the rural Czech Republic in the 1980s).

Only someone as highly competent and "on the ball" as Shawn could have qualified for such a choice assignment. According to his superiors, and in particular, Capt Stillman, the new company commander, "It was either Stanford for the job, or a weather station above the Arctic Circle for me. You can see which one I picked.." Stillman was unavailable for further comment, citing the necessity for "tactical studies" in his office.

John "Lee Harvey" Knowles, our Assistant Features Editor, will be assuming the duties as Features Editor during Shawn's absence. As we've already recently met John, we can dispense with the stories about his friends and cows. We still want to party with you cowboy.. Forget it!

Shawn is one of the original "idea men" behind CadetStuff. You see, he was going to the bingo parlor, at the YMCA in Old Hampshire, PA (just north of Harrisburg).. Well, the directions got all fouled up, and he wound up here. In September of 2000, Shawn, Derrell "Cruiser" Lipman and I began tossing around ideas for a Cadet Programs repository and drill & ceremonies reference. (That's us together in this photo. I'm the handsome dude with the "Death Before Disco" shirt on the far left, Shawn is, of course, in the middle, and you can't miss Derrell, what with all his fast cars and fast women..) As you now know, this concept eventually became "CadetStuff.org". We won't bore you with the rest of the story, suffice to say you can read it all here in our one year and two year retrospectives.

Following some initial pre-deployment training right here in the good old US of A (and the pre-training that proceeds that pre-deployment training.. "Arrrrrmy Training, Sir!"), Shawn will become, in his words, a "lean, mean, fighting machine." In a prior life, Shawn was a Sergeant of Marines and a computer programmer, but unfortunately in that job he swallowed a lot of aggression... along with a lot of pizzas! Since aggressiveness training costs like $400, he figures that this will be perfect for him. Hooah, dude, you'll probably need it. After the corporal takes him outside and watches him do fifty pushups, we think that he'll completely rethink the "big toe" thing, though

Shawn won't exactly be out of touch with the rest of us, much to our overall dismay, disgust and abject disappointment, even while serving his country half a world away. As evidenced by some of our other forum participants, regular access to the Internet is more of a reality for our deployed forces than ever before. While Shawn won't be operating in his Features Editor capacity, we fully expect he'll still be a regular contributor to the spirited discussions in the forums as well as our behind-the-scenes staff dialogs. Hopefully, in what is sure to be his "copious" downtime, he'll even be able to write us an article or two for CadetStuff. ... (Oh, what I would have done for the Internet during my tour in Korea..). You'll also be able to follow the exploits of his unit as they invade the once-sleepy countryside surrounding the capital city of Iraq at their unit website: http://www.avalanchetankers.us

In a bit of bad news, we've already found out that he's stuck with the bottom bunk, which means he has to make the guy on the top bunk's bed every day. Now, if they were going to Kuwait, it would have been exactly the opposite, but they're going to Iraq, so... We're certain, however, that Shawn will usually be the "last guy" to anything, and when asked about it, he will claim that he's "pacing" himself.

Eventually, Shawn will return from his mandated exile, rescue John Knowles from the depths of depression as Features Editor, and proudly display his "Valatorious Service" medal for all to see. At that point, we can throw the surprise party and all go back to his place. Sorta...

Have fun, Shawn, we're going to miss you.