What’s in it for me? The untold story of today’s soldiers.
What inspires men and women to serve in the armed forces?
What sacrifices do they have to make?
And how do they lead “normal” lives after service?
In the US, soldiers often feel unable to talk about their experiences of war when they come home, so these questions often go unanswered.
Some veterans return deeply traumatized, and suffer in silence.
Others feel like their physical and psychological wounds will never be understood.
In these blinks, you’ll get a glimpse into the lives and stories of the latest generation of American veterans, from former army rangers to combat pilots.
You’ll find out about their experiences during their time in service, as well as the projects they’ve been focusing on since.
Pete Hegseth wants to share the untold tales of US army veterans.
Meet Pete Hegseth, a former US Army soldier.
He had three deployments, to Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
He earned two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge for his service.
When Hegseth hung up his army boots in 2006, he began working for Vets For Freedom – the largest conservative veterans’ organization in the United States.
In 2014 he landed a job at Fox News as a contributor, hosting his own morning show called Fox & Friends, and later created a televised special called Modern Warriors.
His aim was to tell the stories of veterans who had left their families and friends to fight for their country.
The key message here is: Pete Hegseth wants to share the untold tales of US army veterans.
Before he came up with the idea for Modern Warriors, Hegseth was convinced that Americans just didn’t care about the lives of soldiers.
He thought that regular people weren’t really interested in hearing about war and suffering.
But when he started covering war topics on his show Fox & Friends, he realized he’d been wrong about the public.
Their reactions to discussions about soldiers and combat were always positive.
It showed him that Americans did want to hear the stories of men and women in service – especially those who had been involved in combat since 9/11.
The thing is, soldiers’ stories don’t end when they finish service.
Often, soldiers come home with hopes, dreams, and the scars of war.
And they struggle in transitioning back to civilian life.
For example, many return home wounded – not just physically, but psychologically, too.
Many wrestle with post-traumatic stress.
Some contemplate, or even commit, suicide.
This is why Hegseth encourages soldiers to share their stories.
He thinks it’s imperative for veterans to engage in honest conversations about their experiences, to expose the realities of bloody combat and the grief of losing your closest friends.
In doing so, soldiers can figure out what all the fighting meant to them – and to their country.
It can also offer them ways to move forward.
Losing his leg taught Walding the value of determination.
Sergeant John Wayne Walding had a long career in the US Army.
During his twelve years of service, Walding saw and experienced a lot.
But there was one occasion that stands out from the rest.
On April 6, 2008, Walding took part in an operation in Nuristan Province, on Afghanistan's northeastern border with Pakistan, as the leader of Assault Team 1 in the 3rd Special Forces Group.
His mission – code-named Commando Wrath – was to kill or capture a high-value target named Haji Ghafour.
Ghafour and his group were operating in the Shok Valley, forcing all the Afghani men there to fight for their terrorist organization.
During this operation, Walding was critically wounded.
Here’s the key message: Losing his leg taught Walding the value of determination.
The battle took place in mountainous terrain – both beautiful and deadly.
Walding’s team was subjected to enemy gunfire, and Walding was shot in the leg.
He fell forward and rolled over.
And when he finally got a good look at his leg, he realized it was hanging at a 45-degree angle – holding on by just an inch of flesh.
Walding was overcome with pain: he lay there and screamed and cried for his brothers to help.
Eventually, his teammate Dave Sanders came over and helped him attach a tourniquet to his leg to stop the bleeding.
Once the blood had stopped spurting, Walding grabbed his weapon.
He got himself into a firing position and rejoined the battle.
A little while later, the troops decided to change position.
Walding was unable to walk.
So he was dragged along by his teammates – gripping his lifeless leg in his hands.
Walding knew that his leg would have to be amputated.
As well as the physical pain of the experience, Walding also had to come to terms with the undeniable truth that he’d never walk again.
He was devastated.
But instead of seeing his lost leg as a physical limitation, he used it as a reason to push for excellence in all areas of his life, just as he had that day on the mountain.
He came off his pain meds, and even enrolled in the Special Forces Sniper Course.
His determination to succeed paid off: Walding was the first-ever amputee to become a sniper in the Green Berets.
Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Workman suffered from trauma and extreme guilt after serving with the Marines.
It was a hot day in Fallujah, a city in Iraq.
Jeremiah Workman was serving as a squad leader with the US Marines’ 3rd Battalion.
He remembers his platoon exchanging gunfire with the enemy for hours.
It didn’t feel like it was going to stop any time soon.
Workman and his marines fought hard that day – for love of their fellow soldiers, and for their country.
Many were critically injured, and three people died.
These were losses that Workman found difficult to process.
Why had he survived, while so many others hadn’t?
This is the key message: Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Workman suffered from trauma and extreme guilt after serving with the Marines.
When Workman returned home he battled with PTS – otherwise known as post-traumatic stress.
He suffered from severe nightmares, insomnia, and depression.
A lot of Workman’s issues with PTS were related to survivor’s guilt.
This occurs when a person feels guilty about surviving a life-threatening situation when others were unable to.
Workman’s mind was plagued by thoughts about the three Marines from his platoon who had been lost.
He kept thinking about how their families were coping, and felt guilty for being alive and surrounded by his loved ones.
Workman’s guilt was so severe that he couldn’t bring himself to wear the Navy Cross he was awarded in 2006.
The Navy Cross is the United States’ highest distinction for heroism in combat.
Workman didn’t feel like a hero.
Many years and therapy sessions later, Workman reflects positively on his experience in Iraq.
He looks back knowing that no decision he made that day in Fallujah could have saved those three men, and that the reality of war is that people die.
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
Workman still struggles with PTS.
But he knows now that he’s not alone: eight out of every 100 veterans suffer from PTS.
Twenty-two die every day by suicide.
These facts spurred Workman to help other veterans cope with their trauma.
Today, he works as a military services coordinator for the Veterans Administration at a Naval Health Clinic.
He educates veterans on what PTS is and how they can get help.
Workman wants veterans to know that no matter how dark it gets, there will always be people there to listen to and guide them.
And he feels empowered knowing that he’s one of them.
Army service taught Sergeant Mat Best the rewards and sacrifices of leadership.
Mat Best joined the army at the age of 17 – with the goal of becoming a Ranger.
At the time, Best had a romantic idea of what it was like to be in the army.
He thought war, combat, and serving his country were cool.
Best joined the 2nd Ranger Battalion and, at age 19, he was deployed to Iraq.
At this point in his career, Best had never seen any real-life combat before.
But that was about to change.
In Iraq, Best saw his tutor and hero Sergeant Dale G.
Brehm get gunned down by enemy fire.
Brehm later died, alongside the squad leader Staff Sergeant Ricardo Barraza.
Watching this happen left an indelible impression on Best.
Not only did it make him realize the bloody reality of war – it also taught him what it meant to be a leader.
The key message here is: Army service taught Sergeant Mat Best the rewards and sacrifices of leadership.
Sergeant Brehm’s courage and self-sacrifice were always inspiring to Best.
During their deployment in Iraq, Best had a conversation with Brehm that has stuck with him ever since.
The sergeant told Best that if he were to “go down” during a battle, it would be up to Best to take control and get the other men out.
Brehm also said that he was committed to getting all his soldiers home to their families – even if it meant he had to die.
Later, when Best became a leader, he communicated that very same message to his team.
He would tell them before a mission that he was going to be the first to go through the door – and that, if he died, then it would be their job to live.
This message took on a new significance during Best’s last deployment in Iraq.
He and a lot of other Rangers were convinced that they weren’t going to survive.
Thinking back to the lessons of leadership he learned from Brehm, Best thought to himself at the time, “Okay, I’m going to die.
Screw it.
” And he promised himself to do the best he could to bring his teammates home safe – just as Brehm and Barraza had.
However, Best lived to tell the tale.
Today, he uses the leadership skills he learned in service to help run the Black Rifle Coffee Company.
This veteran-owned organization has two aims: to serve fine coffee, and give ex-servicepeople a fresh start.
In the attack on COP Blackfoot, Sergeant Eric Geressy and his soldiers were courageous and devoted to each other.
In 2007, Eric Joseph Geressy was the first sergeant for Eagle Company, 2nd Squadron.
The company was assigned to occupy and conduct operations out of Combat Outpost Blackfoot – or COP Blackfoot – in East Rasheed, southern Baghdad.
This sector was al-Qaeda’s last stronghold in Baghdad, and was known as Al Qaeda’s castle.
And it was extremely dangerous.
Al-Qaeda controlled one side of the street, and a militia called Jaysh al-Mahdi controlled the other.
COP Blackfoot sat right in the middle.
On September 4, 2007, Geressy led his soldiers to defend COP Blackfoot.
His main aim was to keep his soldiers alive and bring as many home as possible.
Here’s the key message: In the attack on COP Blackfoot, Sergeant Eric Geressy and his soldiers were courageous and devoted to each other.
The attack on the US Army outpost was intense and relentless.
The enemy fired on the COP with mortars, machine guns, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades.
Geressy even saw Specialist Ryan Holley get shot in the shoulder by a sniper.
The bullet went right through his body – between the plates of his body armor – and came out of his back.
However, after a grueling, day-long battle, Geressy and his team were victorious.
Eagle Company had taken on between 200 and 250 enemy combatants, and secured a measure of peace within the sector.
The thing that Geressy was most proud of was his soldiers’ quiet acts of heroism in Iraq.
Here is just one example.
After the battle took place on September 4, the Eagle Company switched focus.
Instead of defending the COP, they were now tasked with “clearing” houses in the nearby area.
This meant going from house to house checking whether there were any enemies lurking there – or any explosive devices.
During one of the house-clearing operations, Staff Sergeant Darryl Card was blown into the street by a bomb: shrapnel covered his legs and backside, and he temporarily lost his hearing.
A few days later, while Card was recovering, Eagle Company got into a firefight at COP.
Card was still injured, but couldn’t simply stand by and watch.
He headed out to the battle – dressed in his body armour and helmet, but without any boots.
His feet were so swollen, he had to wear flip flops instead.
Card couldn’t just watch his teammates fight without wanting to help them.
For Sergeant Geressy, this selfless action sums up the incredible bravery of the members of Eagle Company – and their devotion to each other.
Lieutenant Commander Caroline Johnson struggled with the military’s masculine environment
Caroline Johnson had her work cut out for her when she went to the Naval Academy.
Of her class of 1,200 midshipmen, only 14 percent were women.
And a lot of value was placed on masculinity.
And despite being athletic and academic, Johnson was continuously undermined by male students and teachers.
One time, she raised her hand in class and asked the teacher what she could do if she didn’t want to study engineering.
He turned to her and said, “What do you want to do?
Make Barbie dolls?
” This is the key message: Lieutenant Commander Caroline Johnson struggled with the military’s masculine environment Johnson felt like she was never taken seriously at the Academy.
But she continued pursuing her career in the navy nonetheless.
She decided that she wanted to be a “front-seat” pilot – and worked hard to get all the qualifications.
Despite her efforts, however, Johnson was made a naval flight officer (NFO) – who sat in the back seat, with little control over the aircraft.
She was heartbroken.
But she didn’t let this ruin her career.
Eventually, Johnson accepted her role as an NFO and worked hard to excel in her training.
She finished at the top of her class, earning the Paul F.
Lawrence Award as the number-one strike fighter graduate.
Later in her career, Johnson flew 42 combat missions against ISIS and Taliban forces in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
She accrued more than 900 flight hours in the F/A-18F – an aircraft known as the Super Hornet.
One particular mission that stands out for Johnson was in northwest Iraq in 2014.
She and her team had been flying operations in the vicinity of Mount Sinjar for the past 55 days.
But they hadn’t been authorized to use lethal force.
All Johnson could think about were the ISIS fighters on the ground below: they were lobbing grenades at a Yazidi village.
Men, women, and children were running for their lives, and Johnson could do nothing about it.
Finally, Johnson was granted permission to use lethal force.
She and her team dropped two bombs – with 480 pounds of TNT packed into each one.
This took out 16 enemy fighters.
The team then neutralized the remaining ISIS vehicles.
The result?
The mission was a success.
In that moment, Johnson realized why she’d worked so hard and put up with being undermined by her male counterparts for so long: Defending the innocent was what she’d been put on this earth to do.
For Sergeant Nick Irving, killing the enemy was simultaneously sad and exhilarating.
Nick Irving always wanted to join the Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams – otherwise known as Navy SEALS.
As a kid, he’d watched the film Navy Seals, starring Charlie Sheen, on repeat, and dreamed of the day he could eventually become one.
However, Irving was later forced to give up his dream.
During a preinduction physical exam for the Navy SEALS, he failed a color-blindness test.
He decided to join the army’s elite Ranger Regiment instead.
Later, Irving became the first black sniper in the Army’s Third Ranger Battalion.
He quickly earned the title of “The Reaper” for being a particularly gifted sniper.
In Helmand Province in Afghanistan, Irving killed 33 enemy combatants in a period of three months – an army record.
But Irving wasn’t as comfortable with killing as he let people think.
The key message here is: For Sergeant Nick Irving, killing the enemy was simultaneously sad and exhilarating.
When Irving became a sniper, he had to learn how to deal with the idea of targeted death.
Before, when he had served as a machine gunner, it was easier to cope with the concept of killing: He’d just blasted rounds and rounds without focusing on a particular target.
However, as a sniper, Irving had to “lock in” on a particular human being.
He had to make the determination that he was about to take this specific person’s life.
Every time he focused on someone through the scope of his sniper rifle, he had to disconnect from being human.
This was the only way he could get through it.
But Irving had a complex relationship with killing.
When he first began his career as a sniper, he was caught up in the thrill of doing what he had been trained to do.
Every time he killed someone, he felt a surge of adrenaline and excitement.
Later in his career, he still felt exhilarated leading up to the moment of the kill.
But afterwards, he would have a metallic taste in his mouth.
It was like a piece of his soul was being chipped away every time he pulled the trigger.
After six years in service, Irving left the forces.
He felt like it was time to put the Reaper in a box and bury him.
His whole identity up until then had been being a soldier, a sniper.
But with the birth of his son, it was time to leave that life behind.
Combat just didn’t compare to being a husband and father.
Captain Sean Parnell was damaged by war, but writing helped him heal.
2005 was a significant year for Sean Parnell.
He was In Afghanistan, serving as a combat infantryman in the 10th Mountain Division.
He also led a platoon known as the “outlaws.
” Parnell and his platoon knew that this part of their service would be tough.
But they weren’t expecting the level of enemy resistance that they eventually faced along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Over a 485-day period, the team was subjected to over 4,000 indirect fire attacks on their base.
And every day they left the base, they entered into direct-fire engagement with the enemy.
On the 485th day, their casualty rate stood at 85 percent.
And Parnell himself was severely wounded.
Here’s the key message: Captain Sean Parnell was damaged by war, but writing helped him heal.
Sean was wounded in action on June 10, 2006, when his platoon was nearly overrun by enemy fire.
He was knocked unconscious and wounded two more times.
Despite this, Sean got back up to lead his men again – and the platoon was brought to safety.
One of Parnell’s soldiers later remarked that “Sean Parnell saved us all.
” After the battle, Sean continued to suffer from untreated head wounds – while still on the battlefield.
For weeks after, cerebral-spinal fluid leaked from his ears and nose.
But he continued to go on missions with his men.
His dedication was admirable – but it came at a personal cost.
When he returned from the deployment in Afghanistan, he had to be medically discharged from the army.
Parnell found it hard to transition back to civilian life.
Even though he had his family and old buddies around him, he wasn’t able to connect with them the way he had before.
Parnell felt like he had seen and experienced too much – and like no one else could understand what he’d been through.
So he shut down and refused to tell his story.
His perspective changed, however, once he started writing Outlaw Platoon, a book about his journey as a soldier that is now a New York Times best seller.
Once he started writing, he realized how therapeutic it was to put his story into words.
It was like he was taking the war out of himself and putting it right there on the page.
Telling their stories to willing listeners helps veterans make sense of their experiences.
For Parnell, it allowed him to come home fully, adapt to his new life, and embrace his future.
Final summary
The key message in these blinks: War is ugly: it brings out the best and the worst in people.
Veterans often come home with a whole world of experiences that they sometimes don’t feel able to discuss – either because they’re suffering from trauma or depression or because they don’t feel like anyone will listen.
However, for the men and women in these blinks, being able to share their experiences was healing.
What they witnessed and what they did will be a part of them forever.
But they also know they have long futures ahead of them, too.
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What to read next: Sea Stories, by William H.
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The blinks to Sea Stories take a deep-dive into the experiences of a particular US Navy SEAL who was the commander of America’s Special Operations Forces, William H.
McRaven.
Here, you’ll find a string of stories about this courageous war hero, as well as a firsthand account of some of the most famous missions in recent US history.
So if reading more tales of adventure and bravery has piqued your interest, head over to the blinks to Sea Stories.