Personal Narrative: My Battalion Leader

Being in war is definitely one of the most life changing events a person will ever have whether it be for the better or for the worst. Soldiers will witness events that are impossible to forget or see back at home in the states. Some soldiers may have even seen one of their best friends that they’ve known for forever get blown up into pieces right next to them, or they might even get one of their own limbs blown off of their own bodies, becoming handicapped for life. As a result of seeing something so intense like that, most soldiers are usually traumatized. In matter of fact, a great amount of soldiers are traumatized from the very beginning of being in war. It’s without a doubt difficult to deal with this but there are some ways where

On 01-25-17 I responded to the above address. Upon arrival I observed an officer talking to Ciro Castro who was speaking through a brocken window in the door and he refused to come outside. I also saw Christine Young sitting on the ground in the neighbors yard talking to Ofc Matthews.

It’s June 5, 1944, the day before D-day. The 101st Airborne Division led by their vigorous lieutenant Alex Hodulik is deployed behind enemy lines and they are known as paratroopers. The soldiers mission was to anchor the corps southern flank and to destroy the 2nd defense of the German forces on the hazardous beach. The day before the mission was a go, I lieutenant Alex Hodulik, was informed by my commanding officer that we have a few replacements for those who have fallen in our division. Little did I know, my little brother had volunteered for the paratroopers. “The replacements just showed up,” yells sergeant Ryan, “there's my little brother.” I immediately ran to him and asked, “Why the hell did you join the paratroopers? You had

I would like to mention an event that helped consolidate the team’s morale. At Camp 2, our team decided unanimously to stay overnight and rest since the health of our photographer had become critical. The harmonious decision helped avoid a damaging storm, allowed the doctor to achieve his research goal, and halted the photographer’s deteriorating health. It was undoubtedly the finest moment in our team’s performance.

It was the 7th of April 2005. I was a part of 1st Platoon, G Troop 82nd Cavalry, Task Force 1-163 IN, and FOB Gaines Mills is where we called home. I was a Specialist in a Light Cavalry unit assigned to Alpha Section of 1st Platoon. My duty position strongly depended on the mission and how our Platoon Leadership wanted to task organize. Since we had quite a bit of diverse talents from the E-4 and below, and we were all capable of Driving, Gunning, or being a Dismount, I had to always be ready to move into one of those positions at any time.

The Aftermath of the Battle of Kamdesh Outpost Keating in the Afghanistan Province of Nuristan which ended in eight U.S. Soldiers deaths, Twenty-Five injured and 150 Taliban fighters dead, affected not only those directly involved in the conflict but the also the Army, it’s Soldiers families. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is described “an anxiety problem that develops in some people after extremely traumatic events, such as combat, crime, an accident or natural disaster” reared its ugly head becoming a real life challenge for some, others on that day made the ultimate sacrifice for their Country (Kazdin, 2000).

The concept is about understanding our troop’s reaction after returning from the war. Mainly external attributions have the most impact on our post-traumatic stress syndrome and any possibilities disorder occurred with them after returning from the war (Costello, 2014). The articles explained about the most extensive training taking place and they are trained to fight and combat on the war. This has caused them to traumatized mainly by fear and other factor about hiding, destroy the enemies. The main concern is about these troops having been trained to eliminate the enemies’ troop. Another important traumatized cause these troop to be intimidating is witness another wounded, destroy by the enemies. The other concern is being capture by the enemies and these individual could have possible been mistreat and sometime executed. Overall these element has cause them to be fear and cautious as they return back to the civilization.

The war grounds are so treacherous, dead bodies are everywhere. We are still one of the three Central Powers. We’ve shot down many trade ships and submarines. Our new technology is very innovative. The poison gas is great but backfires when there are winds bringing back the gases to our trenches. These are extremely deadly and kills almost anyone instantaneously. It burns the respiratory systems of soldiers that don’t wear gas masks, which is a very common circumstance.

Whether inflicting harm on others or the harm is being done on them, it is not easy to recover from that. “Individuals with PTSD are at increased risk for depression, physical injuries, substance abuse, and sleep problems, which in turn can affect thoughts and actions. These risk factors also occur with brain injury,” (BrainLine Military). This shows that PTSD continues to affect soldiers after they get out of war. Substance abuse is a never ending cycle until they get professional help. It’s the same with PTSD; never ending until you get help. “We have been always taught not to hurt others. I know when we go to war, we're taught to kill directly. The current war, in particular, will have a profound effect on people. Because of the very nature of the directness of the killing. We're not talking about distance killing. We're not talking about a firestorm, [like the one] in Dresden that killed 200,000 in a night. We're talking about disintegrating someone in front of you. That needs to be addressed by acknowledging that it does have an affect on people. That is what it means to go to war. But, that person will [need] some support in understanding themselves better and not to have a silence about it,” (Dooley). The silence about addressing these occurrences has a dramatic effect on troops. They feel as if the military doesn’t care about how it take a mental toll on them.

As I was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan, I received news that a SSG, in the unit that we were relieving just went on a killing spree of innocent women and children. To make matters worse an Airforce unit accidently burned a bunch of Qurans at Kandahar Air Field. We were deployed to the birthplace of the Taliban in a remote combat outpost in Panjwaii district, Kandahar province. This would set the tone of our deployment for the next 10 months. Throughout our time there we experienced several small arms attacks as well as IED encounters. We suffered combat losses due to amputations from dismounted IED’s. As a tanker I never thought that I would be in charge of a squad of infantrymen, we all learned each other’s weaknesses and strengths.

In an essay titled, Leaving the Battlefield: soldier shares story of PTSD, Chaplain Major Carlos Huerta tells of his experience dealing with PTSD. (Maj) Chaplain Huerta tells of his experiences in Iraq in 2004 and how the painful memories and how vividly he can remember every detail from the 6 year old boy who caught an IED during Ramadan or all the doors he knocked to tell children their mother or father weren’t coming home. Chaplain Huerta didn’t understand what triggered his PTSD, but he knew something was not right. Like most soldiers in the military Chaplain Huerta tells of, his mind never leaving the battlefield.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, one of the proudest moments of my life was when I tried out for an officer position on my dance team and didn’t earn the title that will haunt me for the rest of my life: “Senior Lieutenant.” I fixed my world around that title, and it would determine the level of my leadership position on the team. The day after the results were announced should’ve been the most dreadful day of my life; having to get up and look in the mirror at the failure staring back at me, then having to drag myself to school and master the art of not being seen to avoid the shame. However, this day was something to the contrary. I knew I was internally devastated for letting the incredible opportunity slip through my fingers, but

I was never really good in school. I graduated high school with a 2.15 GPA, and I blame that on my struggle to focus for long periods of time. Furthermore, I struggled with math and science in high school. I failed geometry twice and chemistry once. To overcome these educational barriers, I employ two things I learned in the military: get the task done and get it done right the first time, and hold yourself accountable for your actions.

My first combat deployment was one that gave me a vast majority of experiences and shaped my mind and the decisions I would make as a Noncommissioned Officer. Along with my unit I deployed to Iraq for a year, conducted missions by helping the people of Iraq to establish a functioning government, and uproot insurgents. My unit had trained just as hard as all other units in the U.S. Army and we relished the fact that we would have the opportunity to deploy. For the better part this deployment did have its high points as well as indubitable low points that we wished would have never happened.

If I was the mayor choosing my next chief I think that by my pervious answers that I would go with. In law enforcement the job itself attracts a certain type of person. To manage those types of individuals it takes a person that really understands them. Police officers do not like to be dictated to they have to understand why they have to do what is asked of them. They spend countless hours learning the law and how to apply it in a timely manner to make decisions. As the mayor I want a manager that understands these principles. Chief Davis seemed to me as the true leader. Not only did he get the desired results in getting his department to change over to a community based policing. He had the understanding of getting the community itself and