I was always a fun-loving person when I was a young man. I loved being the life of the party. One of the things that I loved to do was to go out and sing karaoke. Well, that and flirt with the ladies. I remember that no matter how big the crowd at the bar or dance club, I didn’t mind. I always figured that the more the merrier. It didn’t even matter if I had friends that wanted to go out with me that night or not; I would go anyway. I figured that I would just make new friends when I got there. I was very outgoing. Loved dancing and singing. I remember that there were several times when I would get up to sing, and there would be several women that would come out and dance while I was singing. It was a regular thing. So regular that the karaoke DJ asked if I wanted to fill in for him a couple of nights per week. I agreed. It was fun, and I loved being out among all the people. I would go out to McCabe’s about once per week. They had a dance floor. They mostly played country music (which I love), but on this day, they would play popular music. I loved going during this day because there were a lot more people, drinks were a lot cheaper, and I enjoyed dancing to that kind of music more. I have never liked line dancing. Back then, I loved the warmer weather and enjoyed traveling to places like Mexico. I liked the heat back then. It’s a different story today. I was happy just about all the time and took every opportunity to hang out with my friends and family. Don’t get me wrong, I Travis Puryear 2 liked being at home, but I would much rather be in a larger group of people. I never had an issue making friends when I was younger. Maybe it’s because we moved so much when we were kids? We went to three or four different elementary schools between the first and fifth grades. So if we wanted friends, we had to learn to make them fast. From third to fifth grade, we went to Purdy Elementary. Here, they had a kind of open concept in the classroom called quads. They basically had large rooms where four teachers were teaching their classes, just separated by space. It got noisy in the quads at times, so I learned how to concentrate among many distractions. To this day, I read better and work better when there is some kind of background noise. I am guessing that is where my need to be in the middle of everything came from. To sum up my youth, before I got sick, I was just a fun-loving guy who genuinely loved the people around me. I would never mind meeting new people; as a matter of fact, I enjoyed meeting new people. I loved adventure. I was big into outdoor activities, including baseball, football, fishing, hunting, and waterskiing. I would say that I enjoyed snowboarding, but that would be a false statement. I just so happened to tear my MCL in one of my knees when I was learning how to snowboard. (It just so happened to be on the bunny hill, so don’t tell anyone. That’s our little secret.) Anyway, I was a very active young man. The only health problem I ever had in my life was asthma. As an active young man, you learn how to deal with having asthma and not being able to breathe well at times. I even went through basic training with asthma. Yeah, it was a pain, but I made it work. That brings us to the reason why I am writing this book. It was 1994. I was a young man, nineteen years old, looking for a way to serve my country and pay for college. I remember vividly talking to my dad about which branch of the military to join. He, having served in the Navy, said that I should not join the Navy. My dad recommended the Air Force as a way of serving my country. The Air Force had some appeal to me, but I wasn’t sure if that is what I wanted to do. My dad also had a friend that was in the Army. So I decided to talk to his friend that was in the Army. He made the Army sound challenging enough and a great way to serve. He loved Friendly Fire 3 being in the Army. He had served in both the regular Army and the Army Reserves (which if I remember right, he was in at the time of our talk). He couldn’t say enough good things about the Army. Looking back, I think he would have made a great Army recruiter. I am unsure if that was ever one of his jobs in the Army or not, but it should have been if it wasn’t. After this talk, I decided to talk to an Army recruiter about my choices for joining the Army. He talked to me about the differences between the regular Army, the Army Reserves, and the National Guard. I was tempted to join the regular Army, but being in college, I didn’t know how that would work. I have to say that this recruiter could have done a much better job analyzing me and what I could have brought to the Army as a whole. He could have talked to me about potentially going to West Point or whatever to become something more for the Army than what he talked me into. I was a very intelligent young man and could have easily excelled in any academic area where they wanted me, whether it was Army Intelligence or wherever. Because he did not present those options to me, I decided to join the Army Reserves to stay in college and serve my country while earning money toward a college degree. I remember I took the entrance exam, and I finished in the ninety-second percentile. The funny thing about the test was that I scored highest in the mechanical section, which I have never been that mechanically inclined although I could usually figure things out if given time to think about it. The recruiter told me that I could do anything in the Army that I wanted but never explained my options. The recruiter pointed me toward Civil Affairs, and because I was young and naive, I chose Civil Affairs as a MOS because the recruiter said that my chances of being deployed were minimal. Now, I didn’t mind being deployed except for the fact that it would interfere with my college education. I would have been anxious about being deployed, especially the first time, like anyone else, but I wasn’t afraid of being sent overseas to serve my country. There are a lot of bad guys out there that need to be brought to justice and a lot of people who need help when wars land in their backyard. Of course, thinking back now, I realize I should have been a doctor, intelligence Travis Puryear 4 officer, or lawyer and had the Army completely pay for my education by sending me to West Point. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Immediately, I should’ve known that I couldn’t trust the Army recruiter. He had said that my basic training would begin in October (I believe) but said that I did not have to attend any drills (the “one weekend a month”) until that point. As it turns out, I should have been attending all the drills up until I’m deployed for basic training. I should have seen the writing on the wall. Of course, by that point, it was too late. I had already signed my life away as property of the United States Army. I was theirs to do with whatever and, however, they pleased no matter what. I quickly learned this fact in basic training. Now, a lot of people say that basic training is very difficult, that the drill sergeants are assholes, etc. However, I found that basic training was quite easy. Of course, the physical aspect of basic training was difficult, but everything else was very easy. Do what you were told! Period. That’s it. That is all it took to be successful in basic training. Now some people still found that very difficult to do, but being the son of a military man, I found it very easy to do. Especially, as a young kid, if I didn’t do what I was told, I would most definitely get the belt from my dad. That is motivation enough for anyone! Unfortunately, being able to follow orders no matter what proved to be very detrimental to my health later. The first day of actual basic training was very difficult. I remember being loaded onto a bus from the in-processing station and told to keep my head between my knees. There were all kinds of yelling by the drill sergeants especially when we got off the bus. Their main purpose was to scare the shit out of you. That is what they were trying to do…successfully, I might add. When we got up to the barracks where we would be staying for the next two and a half months, they assigned us our bunks based on the alphabetical order of our last names. I became good friends with two of the guys around me, Perez and Ruckers. Once we had all our clothes put away, they made us do push-ups, sit-ups, and all kinds of calisthenics. It was one after another, with our drill sergeants yelling and calling us names the whole time. After they had gotten done “smoking” us for a couple of hours, they asked us if anyone had made the wrong choice. They Friendly Fire 5 asked us if we thought that we did not belong in the Army. Then they asked for a show of hands from anyone who thinks they made a mistake and wanted to go home. I remember thinking to myself, Did I make a mistake? I remember thinking that I did not make a mistake and that I belonged in the Army. I also thought that this could be a trap. It just seemed fishy to me, and trust me, I know fish; I’ve been a fisherman my whole life. Okay, sorry, that was bad. Anyway, one guy, however, did raise his hand. I remember the drill sergeants taking him outside, saying, “Okay, then, just come with us.” I am not sure what happened outside the doors, but as we were all standing in front of our bunks, all we heard outside was screaming by the drill sergeants and crying from the soldier. Then the drill sergeants came back in and checked the garbage can that was in the middle of the floor. This was the standard-sized garbage can made of metal. One of the drill sergeants picked out a piece of paper from the garbage can and asked everyone, “Who put garbage in my garbage can?” Now, I can tell you that nobody put garbage in that garbage can except for possibly the drill sergeant. We didn’t have time to put garbage in the garbage can. Anyway, the drill sergeant kicked the garbage can clear across the room, and it made a huge bang as it hit off the wall. He proceeded to yell at us, telling us that nobody put garbage in that garbage can except for him. For the rest of the basic training, not one piece of garbage was placed in that garbage can in the middle of the room. I think that this was the toughest day of basic training. The only other tough time I had during basic training was during an extremely long ruck march. I had infected blisters on my feet from wearing the crappy combat boots that they gave us. I knew that if I asked to go to the doctor, I would probably be recycled, meaning that I would have to begin basic training over. So I went on the march with my infected blisters. I remember the pain being extremely bad, but I remember thinking to myself, Just put your head down and get through it. So the whole march, I kept my mind on other things. I would think about my girlfriend back home, think Travis Puryear 6 about life, pray to God, and sing. I absolutely love singing. This type of logic, which I learned in basic training, has served me well in having to deal with all the hardships that I deal with daily. The rest of basic training was a breeze, and my drill sergeants turned out to be neat guys. They were still hard on us, but you could tell that it was to get the best out of you.