You get a call in the middle of the night, you have 15 minutes to be on a helicopter, and you may not come back alive. But there is a good chance you get to KILL those responsible for a mortar attack on your fellow Americans that killed one and injured several others
Right before you leave you tell your buddy who’s on a different op rotation where the LAST LETTER you wrote your wife is and to make sure to give it to her if you don’t come back
You send a quick text out: "Hey babe, going to work, may not be back for a few days. I love you." Then you take off your wedding ring because you don’t want the enemy to take it in case of the worst-case scenario
12 minutes left, better hurry. Now you start to see the faces of your brothers taken too soon flash through your memory and the FOAM OF THE MOUTH starts
The rehearsal you’ve done hundreds of times kicks in. In the dead of night, the gear checks begin. The most capable fighting force in the world is about to be released from its cage. This is what we LIVE for
The moment that helicopter lifts off the ground. We are coming for you. We will stop at nothing to put you in the ground, no matter where you are or where you think you’re safe. We are going to FIND you
This is what it means to be a WARRIOR. It’s a privilege to be on this helicopter right now. We’ve competed against hundreds of others in our CHOSEN profession to be in this very moment
This EVIL is not just any EVIL. It defies the possibility of humanity and alters the realm of cruelty. EVIL worse than you’ve ever seen or read about and once you experience it, you feel it’s your LIFE’s duty to put an end to it
Many Americans to their BENEFIT are kept in the dark about the ragging WAR still being fought every day and every night. It’s that way for a reason. There’s a secret beyond these safe borders of the U.S.A. The false idea of fuzzy gentleness that exists throughout the rest of the world is a LIE. To those who say otherwise I dare you to go to the other side. Go where no reporter will venture
There is a special breed of human that still goes out hunting. To keep it as far away from you as possible. The tip of the spear is STILL driving deeper into the heart of this evil machine that I pray you never see
But eventually, for us all in this CHOSEN profession, that gun will be taken from your hand and handed to the next guy, your time is up and that next chapter hits hard, fast, and too soon
For me, I lost my identity. My motivator for years had always been ANGER and a desire for REVENGE. I WAS WIRED FOR CHAOS
Many warfighters from every branch are NOW hanging up that GUN BELT and getting ready to put on their suit and build their resume
So to those transitioning out this is for you. My goal in sharing what worked for me is to give you a new BROTHER IN THE FIGHT who has come out the other side. How I went from operator to failure to now SUCCESS. I rebuilt my life and found a new purpose. You are not alone. If I can do it so can you