Reporting in
About Military Dad Blog
I'm Reed Fletcher — a Reserve-component military dad of two kids under six. I've been on both sides of the goodbye more than once: the parent carrying the duffel to the car, and the parent standing in the driveway holding a toddler who wants to know why. This site is the field guide I kept wishing existed in either direction — deployment goodbyes and homecomings, PCS moves with car seats, running the house solo, and the small set of gear that actually earns its postage.
You won't find rank, unit, or war stories here — on purpose. I keep my own service details vague because this blog isn't about my resume; it's about the part of military life that happens in the kitchen at 0630 and the hallway at bedtime. Where a topic touches regulations or benefits, I'll say so plainly and point you to official sources — always check current DoD and branch guidance, because the details move faster than any blog.
A short history of this site
Military Dad Blog is older than my kids. It was founded in 2011 by a Navy officer and father of three who wrote here, wonderfully, about "trying not to mess his kids up too much" — deployment goodbyes, homecomings, stints as a temporary stay-at-home dad, and a healthy book-review habit. His writing was republished by national outlets and earned a Milbloggie award nomination from the milblog community. Around 2017 the blog went quiet, and eventually the domain lapsed.
What happened next is the unglamorous truth of expired domains: for several years the address was picked up by spammers and pointed at things that had nothing to do with military families. In 2026 we brought it home. We are not the original author, we don't write in his name, and none of his posts have been reused — but we restored the site to its original topic and its original spirit, because the seat he occupied (military family life, written from the dad's chair) has been empty ever since. If you followed a years-old link to get here, that's the whole story: same mission, new watch.
What's in the mailbag
Deployment covers the whole cycle — the goodbye day, countdown rituals, letters and care packages. Homefront Dad is the solo-parenting lane: bedtimes, mornings, reintegration, and the temporary stay-at-home-dad playbook. PCS & Moves handles relocation with small humans, Military Family Life takes the rest (childcare, budgets, books for military kids), and Gifts & Gear reviews the stuff — by mailing it, packing it, and surviving solo bedtime with it.
The house style is checklist-and-ritual practical, with one dry aside per section, because that's the honest ratio of military parenting: mostly logistics, occasionally funny, always worth doing well.
A note on affiliate links: some posts contain affiliate links — if you buy through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend things that survived actual use in an actual house with actual small children. More in the disclaimer.