Nearly eight years ago Jim retired from, what I described as, the War Zone. By all accounts his job held the kind of intensity similar to how I imagine it must be in an actual war zone. Moment to moment, from where are the bullets coming? That kinda intensity I could only imagine. It was outside my experience. (Although working on an inner city adventure playground in the 1970’s came close!) I said, You are as one who has returned home from war, and your boots are still smoking! I also said soon after his retirement, Why don’t you write about how it is for you now? And that is what he did, back in 2003.

So it is, and so it was. I have been encouraging people to write about their experiences of life and training for quite some years. And now Jim’s writing is coming home to roost in his piece titled Boots Still Smoking just published after these long years. As with Adrienne it has been an honour to walk and talk beside you Jim.