Hi Kris, welcome to the steemit community!

Thanks for your service to our country! Freedom isn't free; something I keep in the front of my mind.

Sounds like you have had experiences in cryptocurrency and I look forward to reading about them here. I am just getting into python programming, and reading all about piston by @xeroc which seems like a good way to access the steem blockchain. If you have any tips on that, I hope you share them here. Best wishes!