(2/6) “My first tour was Iraq. I think during training I...

(2/6) “My first tour was Iraq. I think during training I imaged that war would be like the movies. I had zero experience so I was picturing something like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket. But 99% of the time it’s boring and you don’t do anything productive. I was a cavalry scout, so we’d go out in front of the infantry and get an eye on the battlefield. Mainly it involved just sitting at an observation post. The first time I experienced combat, I was actually in a garage helping fix a large truck. We came under indirect fire. I could hear the guns around us and for the first time I realized that the war is real and people are trying to kill us. Honestly, it was pretty cool. It was a huge adrenaline rush. It was the highest I’ve ever felt in my life. It made me feel like my job had been validated.”