I’ve got dirt packed under my fingernails. There’s a blister the size of Delaware on my thumb. My face is sunburned in a distinctive raccoon pattern around my sunglasses. I’m walking with a slight limp, thanks to the pain in my knee from too much squatting.

OPINION

They are a form of detainment without due process, contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and, more important, to American notions of individual rights.

OPINION

For the analogy to be effective, we must account for the war that made the 1918 flu so deadly.

OPINION

They’ve seen just about everything, but nothing like the coronavirus.

OPINION

There are so many stories of grief and deep sorrow, of incredible teamwork, selflessness, strength and endurance.

OPINION

One of the biggest economic effects of a hasty end of lockdowns adopted to limit the spread of the coronavirus won’t be to save businesses; it will be to kick people off of desperately needed government assistance.

I’ve always been a bit of a loner. This may seem to contradict my image as class clown, columnist and book author — but it’s true nonetheless, and it has affected me as a military spouse.

OPINION

Putin has become a daring military gambler in the Mideast. That has extremely serious military security implications for the United States.

OPINION

We have to start trusting others to do what is right.

OPINION

We’re a nation that ought to be united, but can’t resist the temptation to divide.

OPINION

The coronavirus crisis will not erase party lines, but it could make us all see ourselves, our country and the world in a different way.

Traditionally, May 1 is National Decision Day for high school seniors picking colleges. COVID-19 has delayed some universities’ schedules; however, parents will inevitably begin engaging in vaguely competitive “college talk.” Beware: These seemingly innocent conversation starters are an invitation into a quagmire of double entendre.

OPINION

If it would strain China to the breaking point just to invade Taiwan, there is no rational case to be made that China has any significant territorial ambitions beyond its own borders.

OPINION

We ought to reach a bipartisan consensus that the “essential workers” we claim to admire as heroic — including grocery store clerks, delivery service drivers and meat packers — deserve a living wage.

The official release of some previously leaked UFO videos taken by U.S. Navy pilots has sparked renewed interest in the bigger questions. For sure those flying objects are unidentified, but how much attention should we earthlings devote to this issue? I am struck by the contrast between those who see this as an important question and those who think the whole thing will turn out to be an error or some kind of optical illusion.

OPINION

Trump’s tactic of literally putting his name on a government benefit was familiar to many observers of lower- and middle-income democracies.

OPINION

Because of the global economic fallout from COVID-19, the number of people worldwide facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million, the United Nations World Food Programme estimates, and much of that impact will be felt in Africa.

OPINION

The long-term effects of the pandemic look even more alarming: a global depression that could persist for years, more failed states and unremitting big-power competition.

OPINION

Until insurers had a couple of years’ worth of experience in the exchanges, setting premiums involved a lot more guesswork than usual.

OPINION

Like most kids, I tended to tune out a great deal of what my parents told me. The story of this remarkable odyssey, however, was so gripping that I listened carefully.

OPINION

The good news is that now, more than ever, we are seeing communities come together in this time of physical distance.

OPINION

If you’re groping to understand the disorganization and ineptitude of America’s response to the coronavirus, you might find it helpful to know there’s a single word that captures the situation perfectly. That word is: normal.

OPINION

I’ve watched thousands of races, and in all but a few, an incumbent trailing in a race can’t count on getting most of the undecided voters.

Our family members are the people we know best. Living together makes us intimately familiar with each other’s personalities, likes, dislikes, quirks and habits. We know intuitively what the other person is thinking or feeling, without a single spoken word.

OPINION

Command is lonely and burdensome precisely because all U.S. Navy officers know that they must be prepared to accept the consequences of their decisions, whatever they may be.

OPINION

We do not know the disposition of Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. But we do know that Crozier laid the basis for his April 2 relief when he wrote to his superiors about the coronavirus then loose upon his ship.

OPINION

War is the wrong metaphor for our response to this pandemic. The comparison advances a misunderstanding of what war entails.

OPINION

Soldiers stood at the entrance to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi brandishing automatic weapons and bottles of hand sanitizer. My boyfriend and I were on our way home to the United States — or so we thought.

OPINION

In the world of national security, what we don't know can hurt us. The men and women of the intelligence community work every day against that unknown, searching for the truth — uncovering our enemies' secrets to help keep Americans safe.

“Mom! We’re out of avocados!” my 22-year-old daughter, Anna, bellowed. “And where are the goat cheese crumbles?!” People all over the globe are covering their faces and hands before entering grocery stores to buy life-sustaining food staples for their families sheltering at home, only to find them sparsely stocked. But in Anna’s world, being out of avocados is an emergency.

OPINION

Nearly 17 million Americans have lost their jobs since mid-March, when the coronavirus started spreading around the country. Meanwhile, there’s a proven strategy for containing infectious diseases, which is notoriously difficult to carry out because it’s so labor-intensive.

OPINION

Who can begrudge Barham Salih for his Bill Murray-esque world-weariness? If the Baghdad version of “Groundhog Day” is exhausting for observers, it must be soul-sapping for Iraq’s much put-upon president.

OPINION

The question is not whether Democrats “need” young voters or can “win” young voters. Instead we need to be asking: What will be their margin of victory among the young? And the young voter turnout? And how will Democrats do with other demographic groups?

OPINION

The founding document reflects an unambiguous judgment that Congress, and not a potentially self-interested president, gets to decide when the leader of the United States shall be chosen.

OPINION

Recent developments involving the Navy during the COVID-19 crisis are a reminder that legacy rules and systems can stand in the way, limiting a branch’s agility in responding to an emergency.

OPINION

For many Americans, and for every Marine, Iwo Jima exists as a memorial to duty and sacrifice — a hallowed, consecrated ground not unlike Gettysburg. The battle that produced these feelings was the culmination of years of education under fire.

Recently, a television jingle got stuck in my head. It’s from a PBS kid’s show I used to watch in the 1970s. My brain’s recesses are imprinted with hazy flashes of the program’s ethnically diverse cast of pre-teens dressed in matching striped shirts and bell bottoms, singing the opening sequence’s jazzy theme song.

OPINION

Despite his popularity on college campuses, he never persuasively showed that he could raise a big enough army for the battle.

OPINION

Kim Jong Un has not been seen publicly wearing a mask, suggesting that “Dear Respected” wants to send a message of business as usual to the populace.

OPINION

By ignoring the deaths of the Sikhs in Kabul, the otherwise civilized world unwittingly seems to agree that a crisis matters and, frankly, little else does.

OPINION

By taking a voucher, customers can help prevent scores of unnecessary insolvencies. But they mustn’t be punished for showing a little love.

OPINION

With the pandemic dominating our lives, Biden can only cause himself trouble if he tries to become the center of attention.

OPINION

“The military trained us to thrive in the chaos of change,” said Amanda Trimillos, a U.S. Air Force spouse. “It’s going to be okay. Everything will fall into place. We just don’t know when, where or how.”

OPINION

Just five months ago, Brett Crozier assumed an awesome responsibility aboard one of the largest, most lethal warships in the world. Five months later, Capt. Crozier looks to have chosen what's right and just over what's easy.

OPINION

So far, Like any other global cataclysm, the pandemic appears likely to change the balance of power — depending partly on which countries recover quickly. China appears to have increased its influence; how much isn’t clear. It has made the United States look ineffective; how durably isn’t clear.

OPINION

There are indications that COVID-19 has a minimal impact on children and adolescents, but young people are certainly not immune from the nation’s sudden plunge toward uncertainty, grief and financial instability.

By the time you read this, what I’ve written will be a mere time capsule — a frozen moment in our ever-changing sociological and physiological status. Columns are supposed to be timely, but with a new chronicle being made in hourly increments since the coronavirus outbreak, this week’s musing is bound to be old news. So, consider this a history lesson. A look back at “the olden days” of last week, when life was entirely different than it is today.

OPINION

Perhaps this crisis and the lessons learned will put us on the path to a grand solution to the nation’s cybersecurity challenges.

OPINION

In facing this public threat, as in the past, mature, insightful leadership is crucial.

We recently asked our college senior daughter, Anna, if she was coming home for spring break. She reluctantly admitted to us that, no, she would not be home at all, because she is going on a trip with her sorority sisters to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Since Anna’s bank statements are still mailed to the house, I knew that Anna was flat broke. She didn’t have enough money to buy a bus ticket to Schenectady, much less an all-inclusive trip to a resort in Mexico. However, I had once been a broke college student, too — I had an inkling of how Anna was financing her spring break trip.

What’s the true sign that spring has sprung? No, it’s not the crocuses, the bunnies or the pussy willows. I know spring is here, because I just shaved my knees.

OPINION

The enemy is still at our gate, waiting for the moment when we surrender to our frustrations and anxieties.

OMBUDSMAN

As you may have heard, the Defense Department wants to shut down Stars and Stripes. What graver threat to Stripes’ mission could there be?

OPINION

As the Cold War illustrates, large numbers of troops garrisoned at multiple fixed facilities are not needed to secure U.S. interests.

The place where our family lived the longest was Virginia Beach, Va. Our first house, a vinyl-sided Dutch Colonial on a cul-de-sac, was close enough to the elementary school to hear the morning announcements from our porch. Despite deployments that took my husband away, we spent nine wholesome, grounding, family-oriented years there, growing roots, making friends and providing stability for our kids.

Two months into 2020, statistics dictate that most people have already given up on their New Year’s resolutions. Sadly, only about 6 or 7 percent who make resolutions attain their goals. I’ve always been a resolution-maker and a yo-yo dieter, so I am forever making plans to lose 10 pounds, then breaking them. But one year, I made a resolution that would take me a decade to achieve.

OPINION

Although ending American participation in an unwinnable war is necessary, there will be a strong temptation, if not need, to return unless there is real peace.