In 2001, I was a young, brand-new private who had joined the Army to provide a better life for his family. I also had hopes of using the military to pay for my education. But when I woke up on the morning of September 11 at Fort Benning, Georgia, I did not immediately realize how my life was about to change.
After breakfast chow, we loaded our belongings onto a truck and then marched over to our basic training unit. We arrived around 0900. My uncles had warned me about the initial “shark attack” by the drill instructors once we arrived. The first week would be the hardest. I was already so nervous I could hardly connect to what was happening. Yes, we did get yelled at when we arrived, but it was not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe.
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