Personal Narrative: What I Learned From My Current Military Career

Four or Five years ago if you were to tell me that I would be confidently applying to the University of Miami I would have laughed. Through high school I did not give much effort and like most of my peers, thought that furthering my education was my only option. Nearing the end of my senior year I started realizing that no noteworthy university would even consider accepting someone like me. As the days ticked away, I applied to a nearby college with an incredibly high acceptance rate and found myself opening an acceptance letter a few weeks later.

It’s the day I have to move to the army's campsite. I grab my bag and swing them on my shoulder, it weighs a ton it feels like my shoulder’s gonna break. Sophie was peeking through my room door, as I was about to stand up she ran to the living room curled up into a ball making loud thud and sobbing noises. Outside of the house, I hug my mom as tight as I could, I don’t want to move any single inch of my bone. I want to stay like this forever. I felt a drop of water behind my shoulder and I know that it was her tears. I don’t want to leave them but I have to. It was time to let go but she didn’t want to, I grab her arm and slightly push them back.

I went pre-med before getting deployed and as an intern I've seen a lot of horrible things. But when it's your friend... Someone you serve with... It stays with you forever.

I originally wanted to join the military to defend and protect our country, but realized that it wasn't going to bring the satisfaction I desired. I wanted to fight and defend closer to home, the one that involves Traffic incidents, Drug and DUI enforcement. One Friday afternoon, after getting out of High School, there was a video game tournament being held at a Movie Gallery just a few miles away from where I live. I attended the event and met a cool young man who was 18 years old at the time. I believe I was 16. I talked with him about games and the future tournaments that would be great for the community. It was the beginning of a wonderful new friendship. However, the next day at around 3:00p.m., my dad came into my room and told me he

On the early morning of April 19th, my husband left to gather with the militia. I being worried could not go back to sleep and awaited by the window from time to time. The children were still asleep and out of the corner of my eyes, I see at least a couple hundred of lobsterbacks. I was frightened and crouched making sure I wasn’t seen. Oh how my heart beated, and I am ashamed to remind myself that the militia fired. Perhaps out of fear, but they fired. Immediately there was movement until my eyes could see, running, shooting, bloodshed. As soon as I saw the Regulars marching, and the house being so near to all the commotion I ran to the children and hoped they wouldn’t burn the house down. I was prepared, nervous for the life of my husband

Hello everyone. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. In 1987, my dad was working for IBM and was given an opportunity to move to United States. After a few months of debating and researching, my parents chose Knoxville as our new home. Four years later, I graduated from high school and enlisted in the Marine Corps. During my four years of service, I traveled from one side of the world to the other and saw and did things many people can’t even imagine. Tough as the work was at times, I wouldn’t trade that time for anything as it shaped my view of the world and, along with my family, became part of the foundation on which I built my life.

On top of the hill, they followed the Georgian exterior around until meeting with the wooden porch that faced eastwards, towards the redwoods. They left the tinted grass behind but the smell was far too powerful to flee from. Mr Evans kicked in the front door, with the assault rifle to his shoulder. A procedure he'd learned at military school perhaps?

To start off I was 8 years old and I always liked the military. In a way, I looked up to anyone who was in it. But there again, I always knew that the marines were different from all the other armed forces. I think I got this impression from watching movies, videos, and seeing one in real life. The Marines carried themselves differently, and I realized that they had a certain discipline that set them apart. I couldn't exactly pinpoint it, but luckily my grandma's dad was a drill sergeant for the Marine Corps, so she knew a great deal about it and she would tell me stories about how her father passed this discipline down to her, and this model is what carried onto who she is her today. Unfortunately, my great grandfather passed away before I

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.

I joined the Marine Corps looking for a challenge. I wanted to open doors for a new career and longed to have a positive impact on the world around me. Looking back five years later, I realize I found all that I originally sought, but I’ve also found something profoundly satisfying and meaningful that I never knew I was missing.

My dad, Warren “Smitty” Smith was entered to the United States Army straight after high school. Upon entry, my dad attended Big Ben community college in Fort Polk, Louisiana. He left college for his military obligation.

When I joined the Army, I never imagined it would be like this. We’re Americans. We are supposed to be invincible. On December 31st, 1941 we got to the peninsula and a few days later the battle began. We defeated the first wave of Japs after a couple of months and things got quiet for a while. Food supplies began to dwindle. Soon after we arrived, our rations were halved. A month later, they were halved again. We were near starving to death on miniscule amounts of fish and rice. We ran out of medication and soldiers contracted malaria and started dying. Before we knew it, the Japanese were back. We held them, but our line was never solid. A month later, the Japanese made it through our lines. We tried to run from them, but there

“What is this?” shouted Liam as he was running wildly to the Beechcraft C-12 Huron “They call this a military aircraft?”

Throughout my career in the military I have received a tremendous amount of feedback on just about everything I did. Every single time I went to work I was judged on how I performed, my correspondence, and my leadership. My superiors would always be the one critiquing me. In my four years of experience in my job I’ve learned a lot about myself. I specifically learned about what kind of leader I am. Every quarter I was given a counseling on my proficiencies and conduct. When I got the counseling’s, there was not a lot of negative feedback. I was very pleased with what and how I was told about my overall work ethic. When I did receive criticism, it was something I knew already knew I had to work on. I never believed any criticism I received was

the incident that affected me the most is when we had to go on patrol outside of the base camp to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings. during one specific convoy (exact date and time is unknown but I happened during the early stages of deployment) we came into contact with an area which consisted of a town or village that showed evidence of damages of where a military skirmish had taking place. I saw several buildings, home and vehicles (both enemy and civilian such as tanks, jeeps, pickup trucks and other vehicles modified for combat) that had been bombed exploded, set on fire or fired upon with weapons which was obvious given all the bullet holes, artillery and mortar damages. all of which was charred and burnt. I also saw several