,
7 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
Thinking of old friends with the Iraq anniversary approaching. My buddy Nouv (pictured with his tongue out) lost the lower part of his leg a few months into the occupation. 
One month before 9/11/01 in boot camp. Most of the guys I was with were Reservist 88Ms (truck drivers), excited to get college money and with a chill, safe job in their hometowns. A year later 88M became the least-desirable job in the whole Army and were all getting blown to shit
Basic Training was more like a summer camp for troubled youth; the reservists were just excited to get back to their normal lives and the active-duty guys were trying to find ways out of the Army
The go-to attempt for most guys in my Company was to tell the drill sergeant they were gay (being under DADT). But the head drill sergeant had a strategy of calling their father, putting him on the line and demanding they “come out” to their dad to prove it
...my good friend & bunkmate was gay and tried to get out using DADT, but was too scared to tell his father in this way—so he decided to attempt suicide instead and get out on a mental health discharge.
I remember our drill sergeant didn’t believe that his suicide attempt was legitimate, so he ended up carving his arms up so they were so visibly damaged they had to send him to the psych ward. I remember him showing me the cuts and asking “do these look bad enough?” #ArmyLife
.@USArmy #BasicTraining was the first time I was ever exposed to hard drugs! A few soldiers faked injuries to get prescribed muscle relaxers, heavy pain killers, etc, which were then ground into powder & combined so everyone could snort lines after lights out. #ArmyStory
