Becoming an American Patriot

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2nd 1990; seventy-five days shy of my sixth birthday. The invasion that took place in the Middle East that day not only sparked the beginning of the First Gulf War, it also set in motion a chain of events that determined the path my life would take.

It happened sometime between August of 1990 and February of 1991. As I was sitting alone in the basement watching cartoons, news broke of the war. A news anchor talked briefly about the situation unfolding in Iraq, after which violent video clips began to play on a loop. The fear I felt that afternoon as I watched TV left my face burning, but my body was cold and numb. It was the kind of terror that started as a knot in the pit of my stomach and spread throughout my entire body until I was covered in goose bumps.

I will never forget the graphic images that flashed across the screen. One of the videos portrayed soldiers dressed in brown and tan uniforms, wearing helmets and carrying huge black guns. They wore sullen, almost vacant expressions, as they loaded into ominous camouflage trucks and tanks. One after the other, the vehicles full of troops formed long lines and traveled across the colorless desert. Broken buildings in the background were made more depressing by the lack of colored foliage anywhere in sight.

In another clip, I watched explosions rip through buildings leaving smoldering piles of rubble on the ground. I stared in silent horror as people emerged from the smoke that billowed from the wreckage. Seeing their dirty, crying, bleeding faces made me cry.

In my five short years on this planet I hadn’t yet learned how to comprehend war. I did not understand that the war was half the world away. In my mind the chaos was only ...

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... Working for MEPS I found a place to call home, a place to serve my country, and a place to once again prove my patriotism.

It’s been twenty years since the day I cried over the war in Iraq and many things in my life have changed. Friends have come and gone, and loved ones have passed. I’ve fallen in and out of love twice, and my heart has been broken. But, the one constant in my life, the one thing that has never wavered, is the love I have in my heart for my country. I may not have been ready at the age of five, but by the time I turned seventeen I knew I was willing to lay my life on the line to protect and defend the rights, freedoms, and civil liberties that this great nation affords every American citizen. To this day even though I am serving in another capacity I remain willing to put my life on the line for this country. I am an American Patriot.