The Author

Writing shaped by service, study, faith, and story.

Stone and Steel Journal is the home of David W. Schitoskey's analysis, faith writing, fiction, memoir, and current-affairs writing.

David W. Schitoskey in a black cowboy hat and black shirt. — David W. Schitoskey

About David

A body of work built to reward attention.

David W. Schitoskey writes essays, analysis, fiction, memoir, biblical reflection, and long-form campaign material shaped by a life spent close to service, machinery, history, faith, politics, and story.

A U.S. Navy veteran and former naval aviation maintainer, David brings a working man's eye to questions of defense, technology, leadership, memory, and national character. His defense writing focuses especially on naval aviation, where experience at the deckplate level gives his analysis weight, texture, and practical force. He also holds an Associate of Arts degree in Political Science, with a minor in Sociology, grounding his interest in government, institutions, culture, and the human consequences of public decisions.

David has been a student of the Bible since January 1989. He holds an Associate of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from East Central Community College and has been a licensed and ordained Southern Baptist minister since 2010. That long engagement with Scripture informs much of his writing: its concern for truth, judgment, mercy, endurance, human frailty, and the moral weight of choices made under pressure.

Story and Memory

The factual, the imagined, the personal, and the historical.

David is also a lifelong storyteller and Dungeon Master. He began running games and writing his own Dungeons & Dragons adventures and campaigns in 1992-93, building richly detailed worlds shaped by history, consequence, faith, danger, and wonder. His campaign work often returns to the same ground as his nonfiction: duty, loss, courage, hard judgment, and the strange dignity of people standing their ground when the world grows dark.

Stone and Steel Journal exists for that range of work: the factual and the imagined, the personal and the historical, the analytical and the mythic.

Service

Naval aviation, maintenance, machinery, discipline, and the practical realities behind defense analysis.

Study

Biblical studies, political science, sociology, ministry, public life, and the moral weight of institutions.

Story

Fiction, memoir, tabletop campaign design, mythic imagination, and long attention to consequence.

Explore the Work

Steel & StrategyDefense analysis and naval aviation. Of the Spirit;Faith, Scripture, and biblical reflection. Of Stone and MagicFiction and imagined worlds. The Human RecordMemory, experience, and personal history. The World at HandPublic life, culture, and current affairs.