In my experience, Marines are gung ho no matter what. They will all fight to the death. Everyone of them just wants to get out there and kill. They are bad-ass, hard-charging mothers.
But in that backroom or whatever it is when God confronts me with my sins, I do not believe any of the kills I had during the war will be among them. Everyone I shot was evil. I had good cause on every shot. They all deserved to die.
I did want to be the top sniper.
One was to be a cowboy and another was to be in the military. I grew up extremely patriotic and riding horses.
I really don’t care what people think of me.
I’m trying to raise the awareness of the troops that, when they deploy and go to war, it’s not just them at war – it’s also their family. Their family is having to go through all the hardships and the stresses.
I would love for people to be able to think of me as a guy who stood up for what he believed in and helped make a difference for the vets.
You’re not just going out there, maybe sacrificing your own life. There’s also sacrifices still going on at home. You can serve in the military and have a good marriage, but you just need to be aware of it so you can take those steps to take care of it.
Every person I killed I strongly believe that they were bad. When I do go face God there is going to be lots of things I will have to account for but killing any of those people is not one of them.
I don’t have to psych myself up, or do something special mentally – I look through the scope, get my target in the cross hairs, and kill my enemy, before he kills one of my people.
Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq.
I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.
I really don’t care what people think of me. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my friends. Yes, I have been trained to be a little more aggressive if I need to be, but I don’t go around thumping people.
In the end, my story, in Iraq and afterward, is about more than just killing people or even fighting for my country. It’s about being a man. And it’s about love as well as hate.
Decades of Saddam’s rule made what could have been a fairly rich country, due to its oil reserves, into a very poor one.
I am not a fan of politics.
It’s funny – sometimes the strongest individuals feel the worst when events are out of their control, and they can’t really be there for the people they love. I’ve felt it myself.
What wounded veteran’s don’t need is sympathy. THey need to be treated like the men they are: equals, heroes, and people who still have tremendous value for society.
Great way to fight a war – be prepared to defend yourself for winning.
Maybe war isn’t really fun, but I certainly was enjoying it.