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Army Strong Essay

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"Army Strong": The Army Will Tear You Down, It's Up to You to Build Yourself Back Up! I joined the United States Army Reserves when I was seventeen years old. I did not join because I wanted to be a soldier; I joined because I wanted to earn money to go to college. The effect that this endeavor made upon my life has changed who I am forever.



[Actually,] I had so many reasons for wanting to do this. The first was for money. The military was willing to train me, feed me, house me, and when I was back home give me cash for college, "up to" forty thousand dollars. At that time I thought …show more content…



They weren't going to kill my physical body, but what I found out after one week into the training was that they were going to kill my spirit. This was something that no one could prepare me for. All of the stories I had heard prior to my departure did not meet up with what I was experiencing. I found myself going numb after two weeks of mind washing. I became stoic and very quiet. I did my best to follow every order and never make a spectacle of myself. That was my key to survival. I was taught how to kill. "What makes the grass grow," the Drill Sergeant would yell in our faces. We would reply with, "Blood and guts, blood and guts." We never said it loud enough, so we would get dropped for the tenth round of twenty-five push-ups.



After six weeks of Boot Camp the Drill Sergeant began to build us up. We went from mindless, know-nothing, scum of the earth to powerful, mission-guided, killing machines in eight weeks flat.



Eight weeks of spirit crushing changed the person that I was at that time into a hard, strong, detail-oriented, and emotionless person. I did not cry again until almost a year after I was released.



I found it difficult to care for anyone. It was hard to feel for myself. I lost my menstrual cycle due to the stress of constant drilling, and my hair was falling out. I did not get

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