Because he would do it for me ...

30 Jul 2019 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:27

A short YouTube transcript excerpt in which two speakers discuss the complex emotions of combat veterans: the horror they've witnessed contrasted with a persistent warmth or longing for aspects of combat—particularly camaraderie and intensity—even while rejecting the suffering. The passage solicits reflection on what veterans miss about being 'downrange.'

One of the things that I think is so interesting when I talk to combat vets is the horror of war.
You've seen.
And been around horrible things, and yet there's a warmth that combat vets have to being in combat. They almost miss it. They don't miss the hell, but they miss something. Can you talk about that? Do you have that?
Yeah, definitely.
Because you tell this story, intensity that sets you on a path of destruction, and yet you have a warmth towards your time downrange. Can you talk about what that warmth is, what you miss?
A lot of veterans that I've talked to miss it because of the people they served with. It's knowing that I love my guy to the left and right of me or behind me, in front of me, and I'm gonna do whatever I can in all of my being to make sure he goes home to his family. Family? Why? Because he would do it for me.