I know I’m not the only active duty kossack here, and I definitely know there are a lot of veterans here. So speak up! Make yourself known! Tell your story! But remember OPSEC!
I grew up in a small town in the First District of Florida. My mother battled depression and substance abuse growing up and my parents split when I was 14. I wasn’t given much discipline in those years, not that I shouldn’t have kicked myself in the ass. Either way, I didn’t do so well in high school. Not that I performed poorly in my school work. No, I made A’s or B’s on nearly every assignment I turned in. Trouble was, you actually have to go to school to turn in work, apparently. Five times a week I’m now told. Clearly, I didn’t have time for that.
I had hopes of going to college at a good school. My top two choices were NYU and American University in D.C., followed by law school at Tulane. I had swore I would not go to the local Community College (stupid). No, no; I was too good for that.
As I entered my senior year it became apparent that my scholastic dreams would not be realized. I wasn’t sure of what to do. Then one morning at around 10a.m. on school day, I was awoken by the sound of the phone ringing. It was a U.S. Army recruiter (how he knew I’d be home on a school day, I do not know). I agreed to talk to him and he came to my house. We talked about what the military had to offer. I narrowed my choices down to two jobs: linguist or paralegal. Two days after my 18th birthday I went to enlist. After much thought I decided that being an Army paralegal was the best option for me. The career counselor told me that this option was no longer available, but linguist was a better job anyway. I’d got a $20k enlistment bonus, and spend 15 months in training in Monterey, California. I politely informed him that if that was so, I’d be on my way. He made a few calls and got me the job I wanted, with no enlistment bonus. I later learned that this is a tactic used to steer recruits into positions that are harder to fill.
I attended basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Afterward, I was shipped off to Korea were I spent two years and met and married my wife who is also a Soldier. Upon return to the states, I volunteered to become a U.S. Army Paratrooper and attended Airborne School. From there I was sent to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was there for a year before being deployed to Afghanistan, where I am as I write this.
So there is my story. What about the rest of you?