Personal Essay: Joining The Army

Growing up on an island, the Island of Guam, which is a U.S. territory. I came from a hard working, strict and discipline family. Mother and Father always working trying to put food on the table to feed myself and two other siblings and being on a island it was hard enough trying make ends meet. Upon graduating high school, I attended two colleges, University of Guam and Guam Community College attending day and night classes. Without a degree there was no way of finding or having a good steady job.

I just finish a semester and spring came around. At that point in my life I felt that college was repetitive and getting me nowhere in life, I was always asking my parents for money and a car to drive around so I could go out with friends. I had no desire to join the Army until I get a call from an active duty Army recruiter, he then began to explain benefits, education, traveling, etc and eventually scheduled an appointment. I told my parents about me possibly joining the Army and they were shocked, because of the war going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember the only thing my father telling me was not to be an infantryman.

After having multiple visits with my Army recruiter, I began the process of taking the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude

From there I shipped out to Fort Knox, Kentucky for one stationed unit training(OSUT) for basic training and advance individual training(AIT). Upon graduating OSUT, I was sent to Fort Benning Georgia and was assigned to 3ID 2/69 Armor Regiment. I deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn. Within my nine years of service, I PCS(permanent change of station) to multiple duty station; Fort Carson, Colorado; Camp Casey, Korea; and Fort Hood, Texas. In every duty station I made it a goal to myself and that I wanted to represent myself, my family and where I came from to the units. In which achieving the