Page 112 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine
P. 112
One Soldier’s Story—
A Spotlight on PTSD
Contributed by an anonymous veteran
signed for me, and I became a soldier one
week after graduation. My father, my
auntie, my uncles, and my brother were all
soldiers. I figured, if they could do it, so
could I.
No one can prepare you for Basic Training,
especially for a female. You must train
harder, run faster, learn quicker. We
didn’t have room to make mistakes. So
much trauma goes along with training
to be combat ready. You train to be a
machine rather than a person. You train
to be disposable. Only fellow soldiers can
understand. It is impossible to describe
the training to be a POW (prisoner of war)
“just in case.” The physical and mental
challenge of pushing your body to the
e live among you. We are your max every day, from before sunrise to
neighbors, classmates, law after sunset was NON-STOP. Meals lasted eight
Wenforcement, employees, and minutes, and it was a blessing if you could keep
homeless. We are reserved, but observant. We them down.
have fought battles, both physical and mental.
We carry scars on us and deep within us. We are FINALLY... graduation! You find out where
soldiers. you will be stationed and where all the training
is put to the test. You get two weeks to get
When I was approached to tell my story for acquainted with your fellow soldiers because
Senior Link magazine, I was honored. I also they are the people who will be joining you on
knew what I had to say might be slightly the battlefield. These are the people who will
different than the others, but I thought, “Why have your back. I joined during wartime (Desert
not?” Storm/ Somali), and, to my great surprise, my
unit was picked first to head out. I was terrified,
I am a woman and an Army veteran. I joined the
military while still in high school. I was smart, and even now, reliving that period is traumatic.
but I was “out-of-control.” I wanted to make The lens with which soldiers and veterans
my family proud of me again, and the military view the world is, in my opinion, profoundly
offered a pathway out of the consequences of different. We were taught to BE equipment,
my foolish teenage choices. At 17, my mama not just to hold it, and be prepared to give
112 Lubbock Senior Link
