by Daniel Wakefield

Created on: May 26, 2008

It is not easy to understand why someone would give up his life to save other soldiers. It does not seem logical to throw yourself on a grenade to save your buddies. But it happens, almost daily these days.
Soldiers start out as individuals from different backgrounds. One joined to get away from home. Another joins to become a man. Others, because their friends did. Each soldier has a different reason for joining.

That individuality gets broken quickly in Basic Training. You become dirt, muck, slime, and the adjectives continue. After everyone is broken to the same level they are then built as a team. Nothing happens where the team is not involved. You become buddies first. You learn to help each other because you start to realize that without help you probably won't make it out alive.
Finally you get to your unit. You start to learn your real place. You make friends, you have to or you will be miserable. You become a piece of a huge machine called the Army. When one piece breaks it has to be fixed. Your friends are there to help you and you're there to help them. You learn to do the work required. The repetition teaches you to be right. Your life and the life of your buddies depends on you doing what is necessary. Life starts to take a back seat to the bigger ideals of freedom and liberty.
After some time passes a true soldier sees his role differently than when he started. It started as a way to become a man or woman, to get away, or to see new things. It becomes a love/hate relationship. You hate the pain and some of the work but at the same time you love the feeling when you accomplish your goals. You learn how to take care of each other because you know that it is the right thing to do.
The work becomes a passion. Soldiers become families drawn together because of circumstances. Keeping in touch to remember the good times. Staying united to overcome the bad times. Helping each other when no one else seems to care about the other person. Living the life of a soldier to preserve our freedom. Giving their lives because they know, they have learned, that freedom is not free. It was bought with the blood of our brothers, sisters, fathers, grandfathers and the list goes on.
Why do soldiers do what we do? Because if we don't, our freedom means nothing. Why did I become a soldier? Because I believe in Freedom. I believe that my life is useless if it is not spent trying to help others.

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