REO Speedwagon’s Hi Infidelity album was big news when we arrived to serve at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan, in 1981. I’d written about that album and a few of their songs off that album before.

REO had been around awhile, and I’d like some of their earlier music, so their success pleased me. This song, “Roll With the Changes,” was one of their earlier songs that I enjoyed. First, it’s from the album, You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish. Yeah, silly title, but it appealed to my silly nature.

The refrain from that song, though, “Keep on rolling,” became one of my personal battle cries as things happened in the military and in my life. Yeah, shit happens, but keep on rolling. Adapt and adjust, and keep on rolling. Short story submitted and rejected? Keep on rolling. Mission issues? Keep on rolling. Typhoon? Keep on rolling. Writer’s block?

You get the idea.