Training Different From Reality

Pretty much everything that you are trained for in the army is exactly what we were doing at the first or the whole way through the tour so that’s why it really doesn’t shock you because training takes over. It didn’t really shock me about the way we were living in the tents and stuff like that, our daily routine. I think the only thing really what shocked me was what I noticed was when we go through our training especially when I was in like when I was first coming in. They tried to shock your system and your stress levels by, you know, constantly yelling like when you are doing scenarios pretending to get mortared or artillery. They are yelling like, “Get to the trenches!” Like yelling at you and so you have like these bangs going off and then your instructor is yelling at you. But I remember the first time when we got mortared in Afghanistan it was so calm. Like it was like bliss. No one was yelling and everybody was just doing what they needed to do. And nobody was sprinting or running it was just a quick hustle to the vehicles for protection. And I just kind of like remember being in that at that time and I was just like wow nobody is yelling. That’s not how we trained but it’s just like I wasn’t really that stressed out because I guess the training took over.