Blogger’s note: Today, you’ll hear from Butch Addison, the protagonist in Operation Silver Star. Learn about what makes him tick and what his worries are.

Tell me a little about yourself.

Hah, that’s easy. My name’s Butch Addison. I legally changed my name to Butch when I joined the Army at the age of eighteen. Alfred, especially the nickname Alfie, were names I grew up hating, mainly because Daddy’s the one who named me. Let’s just say we ain’t on speaking terms. Not after the years of abuse I endured at his hands.

Name three significant events that have happened to you.

Just three? That’s hard to do sometimes. Well, I guess the most significant one is that I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior back when I was twenty-one. It was New Year’s Eve of 2000. While my buddies went out and partied the New Year in, I lay on my bed reading the Bible. Surrender to Jesus came easy that night.

The second most significant thing that happened is that I got me a wife recently. That’s right. I married Shelly Wise. I have to laugh because when you say opposites attract, it’s true. Me? Well, I have to say I barely finished high school. I had undiagnosed dyslexia all throughout my schooling years, and that caused me to hate school. Guess you could say I’m street-smart, but Shelly also says I’ve got book smarts. I’ll take it.

And the third thing? Oh, man, when someone drugged my coffee when I was on night patrol in northern Iraq in 2009. The incident resulted in me losing Cowboy, one of my buddies, along with a militia member. It also cost me a career. That’s right. The Army let me down in a big way. Operation Silver Star tells about my return visit there.

What blind spot do you have?

Blind spots? Like a weakness or something? I guess you could say I love my friends. I trust them, and they’ve never let me down. Like Roo, my CO, that’s commanding officer for you non-military types, stood by me when my kid sister died. When everything happened in 2009, one of the medics on my team, Jace Choi, stood by me. He didn’t believe I’d been sleeping on the job out of incompetence or that I’d been colluding with the insurgents. But his support of me wasn’t acknowledged by anyone. And that hurt. That’s why I left the Army. They’d betrayed me by assuming guilt before innocence.

What do you want us to learn from Operation Silver Star?

I can’t say a lot without giving everything away. Just know that my loyalties run deep. I care about people. And sometimes that can come across the wrong way.