On a goat farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, 15-year-old Luke Morrison runs Luke's Military Museum from an aluminum trailer. Over hundreds of conversations with veterans, he has assembled uniforms, jump boots, and Marine pins from service members spanning World War II to Iraq. The collection includes a pin from Pete Racine, a 92-year-old WWII airman who stunt flipped a car.

Luke's great-granduncle Dwight Cooley, a WWII veteran, purchased the antique camper housing the artifacts. One donor, Vietnam veteran Harry Swett, shared stories of sleeping in waterlogged foxholes before passing in October 2023, months before the museum opened. Luke called Swett's widow regularly and invited her to Christmas at his family's log cabin.

The piece connects Luke's work to the Pentagon's January push under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to become an A.I. first institution, integrating artificial intelligence from campaign planning to kill chain execution. Veterans' memories, the author argues, yield instincts and wisdom that no algorithm can replicate.