First to fight. The few and the proud. The change is forever. Always faithful. The few who move towards the sound of chaos. I can tell you that these are true, and that my service to my country was an honor. My life was changed forever by becoming a Marine; I became a patriot, a man and a warrior. This transformation began during recruit training and continued until my last day of active duty as an artilleryman. The end result of this change has given me habits and customs I keep, camaraderie to all Marines and an intense dedication to everything I do.

You train hard day in and day out, until that day you find yourself in a foreign land going through those same motions with your brothers and sisters to your left and right. It’s in the moment that it becomes real…when you experience death and destruction, when you’re no longer the only one shooting, when you see the Marine by your side fall…that you experience other changes which are much harder to contend with, and those demons will in all likelihood haunt me for the rest of my life.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones; I am still whole and have been able to return to “normal life”. So I now deal with my demons by dedicating myself to my fellow veterans and by embracing a different credo: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”