The Trials of the Soldier

The Trials of the Soldier

As a person I believe we learn through experience and the values displayed and taught to us by those around us. Some just call these “values”, while others call them “ones ethics”, I call them my “beliefs” and through these I live my life. But beliefs can change under different circumstances; I once believed that no matter what happen to me, I would be me and that can never be taken away from me. I was wrong. What changed me is my experience as a military soldier. Like myself and many of my follow soldiers I lost part of myself out in the battlefields of Iraq. The military took away some of my beliefs, and I can never get that back, but I got new beliefs that are what the military wanted me to have.

I entered the US Army in 1990 as a way to help our country and to help myself become a better and stronger man. I was considered a strong, independent, selfless, and warm person by my friends, but always the slacker. The military changed that. I became mission and work oriented, and as strong as I was and set in my beliefs and those of the army, I moved up in rank and became one of the top mechanics in every unit I was in. In 2003, my life was set in the military way and lived by their beliefs. When I deployed with my unit to Iraq to fight what is called the War on Terror, things changed. Upon leaving, my wife at the time of five years tells me, “to be safe and come home in one piece.” All I could say to her was “I love you and I’ll call or write when I can”. Well needless to say that was very little for the first couple of months as we pushed our way up into Iraq from Kuwait.

After the first couple of months the communications grew as the base I was at started to get better systems for calling home to love ones, but they were just to say “Hi I’m doing good call again in a couple of days.” Different missions were assigned every day with no confidence that everyone would make it through, and days would go by without my wife knowing if I...