Growing up in the large port city of Houston Texas trouble was never more than a stone’s throw away. I honestly believe that if I didn’t join the army right out of high school I would have been in jail or worse. The military and war ironically saved my life and made me the man I am today. The military changed my life for the best and back injury or not I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Some things that overseas war affected my life were when I was stationed in Iraq for 15 months I lived next to a burn pit. The country didn’t have a proper landfill so we burned all the trash we had which included tires, Styrofoam, computers, mattresses etc. Some days it rained ashes on us which we had to breathe in which damaged our respiratory system called gulf war syndrome. Also during my tour of duty I sustained back damage and other small things like tinnitus which is ringing of the ears. The damage done to my body pales in comparison to the good I know we did. People ask me all the time when they find out I was a soldier “do you believe in the war? Do you thing we should be over there?” My answer is usually the same. I don’t think the reason we went was a good one but once we were there the good we did outweighed the reason. In one small instance we were on patrol in Baghdad and some children were playing soccer nearby. One kid kicked the ball to hard and it flied across the street. As you would expect one of the kids (a young 8 year old girl) darted out onto the street to get it and was hit by a truck driving past. The driver, without a thought just kept driving like nothing happened. They didn’t even speed up to get away, just kept cruising. Our medic ran out and scooped the girl out of the road and we drove her to an American outpost hospital we had that was in an old abandoned building. The doctors said if our medic didn’t act fast the girl would have surely perished. In my opinion just saving that one child from a painful death alone in the street made us being in that country worth it to me.
The military wasn’t what I wanted in my life; it was what I diffidently needed. I have brothers who live around the United States I can rely on to be there for me if I were in need and vice versa. The loyalty and bond I share with these people run deep, and with this scholarship/ grant I will be using it to get an associate’s degree in helicopter flight instructor. I hope to use what I learn in the school to not only teach others but to also do volunteer work for veterans. Things like tours of the Grand Canyon or helicopter hunting trips. Although as of now they are just dreams of grandeur but with your help I will be able to return the favor and love to some soldiers who lost their friends in the war or veteran suicide and show them that I love them and care about them as much as my brothers and sisters in green still tell me to this day. The army gave me experience, life views, thick skin and shockingly love for my fellow man; but most of all it gave me family. The kind of family that would take a bullet for you and know you would do the same for them without a second thought. I honestly don’t even have real family that would come close to that. So in closing I would like to say the military was rough, hard, hot, and miserable….. And I wouldn’t change one single minute of it for anything.
