It was a rainy day in January 1982. I was married, with a child on the
             way and working for Flour Daniel Construction Company in Wilmington,
             North Carolina. I was riding home after being rained out from working
             another day, and decided to stop in to see the Army recruiter. The recruiter
             experience was not new to me since I had gone through a preview for the
             The Army seemed to be the branch for me, so I enlisted on January
             23, 1982, with basic training reporting date of April that same year. The
             Army basic training program opened numerous learning opportunities and
             self confidence boosters. Learning to belong to a team while developing into
             a disciplined and ethical soldier are principles taught in the U.S. Army. The
             basic skills of marksmanship, survival, drill and ceremony, as well as
             combat medical training were the major confidence builders. The combined
             experience and knowledge from basic training built the foundation of my
             self esteem and heightened my maturity level.
             After completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina
             I reported to Fort Benning, Georgia for Airborne Infantry school. The first
             few days of training were fostered to a review of previously learned
             material. This had a tremendous effect on our individual self esteem and
             team confidence building. As the course moved forward, we added to our
             basic skill's foundation and pushed our physical abilities to their limits. We
             completed numerous training exercises to put our basic skill's knowledge to
             the hands on evaluation. We reviewed the results and completed after action
             reports to assist in future exercises. This taught us to remain open minded
             and never stop learning from our lifetime experiences.
             The final parachute jump into a three day exercise, concluded with
             graduation ceremony from Airborne Infantry School. We sustained
             numerous injuries during the infiltrat...