Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam
Daniel R. Gettridge
South University

Uncle Sam
Growing up I used to always see my dad get dressed for work. I would always see a U.S. Army nametag on his blouse. As a young boy I didn’t understand what that meant. I just thought his job required us to move around a lot. I did notice people use to always thank my father for his service to our country. I didn’t fully catch on to what my dad did until he was deployed for 12 months. I wasn’t able to talk to him for months at a time. My mother worried herself sick, and that’s when I knew why people thanked him for his service. He laid his life on the line to defend our freedom.
I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up because we would always move. Getting attached only made moving worse. That was probably the thing I hated the most about my dad being in the Army. For that reason, I told myself I wouldn’t join the military. I put my focus on my studies to put myself in position to go to college. I also have a twin brother and two sisters so it would be a financial burden on my parents. So one day I went to the recruiting office and changed my life.
During the summer of my junior year I visited the recruiting office with my twin brother. I was just going to support my twin brother’s decision. He had already decided he was going to join the Army, but I did not know that this was the day I started the process of joining. They really persuaded me with the amount of money they would give me for college. That was my main objective; I wanted to make sure I was covered for my education. On August 10, 2011 I officially became a U.S. Army soldier. I had to wait to graduate high school before I could go to basic training. I only had about 3 weeks of summer before I begin being a soldier. Basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia was scheduled for July 10, 2012. It didn’t really hit me until that 4th of July, realizing that it was my last as a civilian. A few days later July 10th came around and became one of the...