First and foremost, thank you for this opportunity. I am here today to tell you my story.

In early Spring of 2005, I was enrolled in college of the Redwoods in the automotive program. I was struggling with things personally in my life. My grandmother had just passed and I had been trying to cope with her death by drinking all the time. Had a girlfriend and a year earlier my first child was born. But my life was in shambles. I was in my early 20’s and had no real direction in my life at that time.

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by Siegfried Othmer, PhD

Most of those who enter the Armed Forces benefit from the training experience, and would agree that life in the military allowed them to improve in their personal competence and skills to a greater degree than if the same amount of time had been spent in civilian life. On the other hand, it is also likely that combat experience exacts a price in a large minority, if not the majority, of service members. This is not easily accepted because it is difficult for any of us to confront our own shortcomings. The burden military discipline imposes is to take full responsibility for one’s own performance. When that is not possible, denial is the likely response. You want to own the problem by any and all means, and go from there.

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