First off, to all of those that signed on that dotted line to lay your life down for your country. Thank you. I have more respect for you then I will have for anyone else, because you volunteered for that shit.
I don’t care if you were a cook or an operator, same respect for both. Ive seen cooks that have never even fired a weapon, get told to hop in the turret because they needed to deliver food to an outpost. Some made it and some didn’t but no matter what, you knew at any moment during your service that you could die. So thank you for signing that dotted line because this country wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for those who sign that line in order to protect this land in other countries.
I want you guys to know that today is a day for you to remember all the people you served with. I am not one to reach out to all my friends and check up on them because I know they are trying to figure life out outside the military just like I am. We all are.
As a veteran, you have a certain set of skills that the average person doesn’t have. You have the ability to overcome adversity much easier than others because you have been tested. Doesn’t matter how hard that test was, it is just the fact that at one point you were given a task that many would believe to be too hard or straight up impossible and you took it on. Maybe you failed, maybe you succeeded and then the next day another task just like that was thrown your way.
You have a gift as a veteran. A chip on your shoulder, that chip is called pride. That is why you enjoyed the military so much because no matter where you went, you knew that you were doing something that not a lot of people will ever do. That earns respect from me.
You deserve to go enjoy all the discounts and shit form restaurants and stores, you earned it. Yeah we know plenty of shitbags that really take advantage of the whole veteran thing but that’s not what we need to be worried about. We need to be worried about holding that standard outside the military as well.
If you are one that drowns themselves in alcohol or drugs everyday to make yourself feel better, I challenge you to quit that shit. Im not saying I ever did that but I saw it a lot. Most of them never made it out and then took the easy route by committing suicide. I challenge you to prove me wrong that you can get out of that dark place.
Trust me, I think about all my friends that died. Most of them weren’t Americans but the soldiers I was training and sneaking out to go fight with at night while we were told to sit on our hands. Most people wondered how I knew so much about what was going on outside our gate but I don’t feel the need to explain because they wouldn’t believe it. All I cared about was liberating those oppressed dudes, the ones that were getting blown up every night while sleeping and attacked hour by hour because they wouldn’t surrender, I couldn’t just sit there day by day and watch it.
Trust me, I thought about if I ever got caught how much shit I would be in, but I honestly didn’t care. I was okay with dying over there if that meant helping them. What really got to me was the kids. You see me with kids a lot over there in Afghanistan because I made the conscious effort to try and show them that they didn’t have to follow in those footsteps but mainly to show them that I was not there to hurt them but to protect them like my own kids.
I miss every single day of being over there, it felt like more of a home than any other place ever will because the culture there is, no rules we fight til we can’t fight anymore in order for our family to be safe for the night.
This is where I really picked up the mindset of “one day at a time”.
If we can make it through tonight then we will have one more day to enjoy together and then tonight, it’s on.
To all my veterans, whether you have a CIB or not, I don’t give a fuck. Thank you. You are the real heroes of this country.
Happy Veterans Day.
