My Military Career has Shaped Who I Am

Throughout my life there has been many events that have shaped the way I am. The one event that had the greatest impact and has been constant is my military career. Since I joined the military I have changed roles, conformed to new norms, and learned new values. Like most service members the parts that shape your military career is the beginning, so as a focus I will look at my basic training, technical school and first duty station which these three combined events in my life has shaped the last 14 years. Through these phases in my life I have learned a lot about the military society, society in the United States, the world and of course me.
The military, for me the Air Force, has its own way of life and its own social function. The first thing I remember getting off the bus at Lackland Air Force Base was the Drill Sergeant running towards us and just yelling and yelling. As a group of individuals we could do no right, “pick up your bags, put them down” was yelled over and over until we learned that when the bags are placed down they can’t make noise. The first day was long and we had to learn quickly the norms of military life. We were giving roles, I was a chow runner, and each role had its own role set. I had to count the trainees and report to the Drill Sergeant how many people in my flight would be eating the meal and after reporting I had to report to the flight leader when our turn will be. It seemed that each day was blurred together as we learned and expected military life style. Class after class was giving by our Drill Sergeants we made sure that race, sex, sexual orientation and color did not affect our daily routine. As each day became in the six week course we started to get used to the daily ritual and...

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...it is a low-income country which as I remember only 10% of the people made more than $50.00 American there. Gender inequality was still present in Kyrgyzstan and women were not event closely treated equal. I the religions of the country were split between Muslim and Orthodox Catholic beliefs. While I was there I meet my wife and only after knowing each other for a month we decided to get married, our marriage took place in Bishkek and was in Russian.
My career in the Military shifted to the Army in 2006 and continues on today. I have enjoyed the last 14 years and plan on continuing my service until the Army doesn’t want me around. Even though I had to deal with role conflict between being a service member, father and husband the military life is for me. I have been able to experience things that a civilian job would have never allowed me to experience this.