So there we were, all strangers, in an environment so extremely foreign that many could easily be brought to tears. Hell, that was even before the constant physical beat down began. Once the drill instructors started to punish our bodies, and make muscles most of us never knew we had ache, it compounded the mental and emotional weakness many recruits had ten-fold. But, as I mentioned before, no one gets left behind. Unless of course you got injured, and that injury required a lengthy recovery before you could again get back to the high level of physical activity that was expected during basic training. Unfortunate souls in that situation usually got "recycled." Held back, not sent home to return later, but placed in a holding company to be re-integrated into another cycle of recruits, hopefully close to where they left off in the training cycle.
So, as I ramble about my initiation into the military, I must digress for a moment. I am after all talking about myself, but I must make a few facts about my service, and feelings about the service as a whole, very clear. Prior to my introduction into the Army, I was certainly living my life for myself, selfishly for the most part, not always, but mostly. That changed greatly once I went through basic, AIT, and made it to my first duty station, I started to realize how much more I would get out of life if I could at times, and most of the time, place others, their needs, their feelings, and their wants, before my own. Now, that doesn't mean that I ignored my own, I just found greater satisfaction in being selfless, not selfish. I will touch on the Army Values (wore the values with my ID tags until I commissioned) in the future for which selflessness is contained. Along with the Warrior Ethos which are contained within the Soldier's Creed in the future as well. Also, please don't take the words contained in this blog to mean that I am the "know it all" when it comes to military service. I know simply what I have done, the positions, jobs, achievements, and service for which I have lived over nearly 16 years. I am not a combat specialist, there are many marines, Army infantry men, special forces of various services that have burdened a load during the last 10+ years of war-time service that I cannot and will not be able to understand or explain, therefore, I will not try to act as if my service is in anyway valorous as many of theirs has come to be defined. Mine has been meritorious by some standards, but to me, it has just been what I feel I have needed to do.
I hope to eventually arrive to the present day to blog about concerns for American Veterans (this is a goal for the future, supporting all veterans, from all branches, from the young to those who have graciously grown old, from those of us welcomed with open arms and the calls of "hero" to those Vietnam Vets so wrongly disgraced after returning when their country and government called), and further define my military service. I will eventually also arrive to the point where I can explain in more detail about how service extends into the very fibers of being of our loved ones and how when we hurt, the sting affects them just as much, and in some cases more. I also want to bring more focus and attention on the relevance of PTSD in our military fraternity, and hopefully open the eyes of many still stuck in a bad place, to the avenues open in our society that will allow some of the hidden scars to heal.
I will also describe my journey to get my book published, and describe in detail how Combat Support "The True Burden Of Sacrifice" came to fruition and eventually helped bring me full circle and start to fill the voids I left in Iraq somewhere between 2005 and 2006.
So, as I ramble about my initiation into the military, I must digress for a moment. I am after all talking about myself, but I must make a few facts about my service, and feelings about the service as a whole, very clear. Prior to my introduction into the Army, I was certainly living my life for myself, selfishly for the most part, not always, but mostly. That changed greatly once I went through basic, AIT, and made it to my first duty station, I started to realize how much more I would get out of life if I could at times, and most of the time, place others, their needs, their feelings, and their wants, before my own. Now, that doesn't mean that I ignored my own, I just found greater satisfaction in being selfless, not selfish. I will touch on the Army Values (wore the values with my ID tags until I commissioned) in the future for which selflessness is contained. Along with the Warrior Ethos which are contained within the Soldier's Creed in the future as well. Also, please don't take the words contained in this blog to mean that I am the "know it all" when it comes to military service. I know simply what I have done, the positions, jobs, achievements, and service for which I have lived over nearly 16 years. I am not a combat specialist, there are many marines, Army infantry men, special forces of various services that have burdened a load during the last 10+ years of war-time service that I cannot and will not be able to understand or explain, therefore, I will not try to act as if my service is in anyway valorous as many of theirs has come to be defined. Mine has been meritorious by some standards, but to me, it has just been what I feel I have needed to do.
I hope to eventually arrive to the present day to blog about concerns for American Veterans (this is a goal for the future, supporting all veterans, from all branches, from the young to those who have graciously grown old, from those of us welcomed with open arms and the calls of "hero" to those Vietnam Vets so wrongly disgraced after returning when their country and government called), and further define my military service. I will eventually also arrive to the point where I can explain in more detail about how service extends into the very fibers of being of our loved ones and how when we hurt, the sting affects them just as much, and in some cases more. I also want to bring more focus and attention on the relevance of PTSD in our military fraternity, and hopefully open the eyes of many still stuck in a bad place, to the avenues open in our society that will allow some of the hidden scars to heal.
I will also describe my journey to get my book published, and describe in detail how Combat Support "The True Burden Of Sacrifice" came to fruition and eventually helped bring me full circle and start to fill the voids I left in Iraq somewhere between 2005 and 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment