WEBVTT

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yeah

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I started to work for disposition

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services in 1986 I was going to the

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local community college Kellogg

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community College and I was taking um

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uh just some business classes and uh

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display at the time DRM s had a

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uh need for a stenographer . Somebody

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had going on unexpectedly on maternity

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leave . So the human resources office

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called over there and asked if they had

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somebody that could come over and fill

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in for a couple of days and helping

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them with some meetings and doing

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stenography . And so I was asked if I

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would be interested in doing that . And

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so I did , I came over for I think it

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was three days of meetings and just

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doing stenography for them for their

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meetings and capturing their meeting

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minutes . Um kind of went from there to

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someone suggesting I go over and take

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at that time they still did the civil

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service exams . So I went over and took

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the civil service exam . It was only

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like maybe 23 weeks , it just happened

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to be being held two or three weeks

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after that . And um because I had taken

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it they ended up actually Uh the agency

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at the time the RMS pulled me in to

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fill behind that woman on a temporary

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basis for six months and six months

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turned into 34 years .

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I worked inventory . Um So a lot of

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different offices within disposition

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services . I think I even worked in

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contracting for a period of time . Um

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as they were doing some huge contract

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close out . So I think for me as I got

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mid career there was all of a sudden

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one day I woke up and was like , well

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this is my career , you know , I was

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always worried about what was my career

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going to be and here here I'd been

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living it . So and then at that point

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it was just all right now , what do I

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want to do ? How do I , I'd like to ,

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you know um I have all these

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opportunities in which to do different

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things and disposition services and

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different um you know offices so it was

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you know , how do I expand my horizons

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within those offices and things like

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that ? And so one of those ways was

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then to number one was to get into

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supervision but then also through

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deployments where that I could go and

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experience other God , I've gotten to

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travel to many states within my career

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but not a lot overseas and so going and

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doing deployments was one of those ways

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to do that . I deployed in 2012 to

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Speicher Iraq And then in 2014 to

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bagram Afghanistan um a little bit

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different operations in both in

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Speicher Iraq . Um we as civilians and

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the crew that were there , we did the

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physical work and the labor . So we did

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the receiving of the property from them .

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We did um screening and if there were a

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gmail property , we did the physical

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cutting of that material in the

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scrapping of that material in bagram

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Afghanistan . We have contractors that

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did that , I would say that heavy work

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for us . The difference is also we're

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in um Spyker Iraq . I went really as a

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um an employee worker and then in

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bagram I went as the site chief and so

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then I oversaw all the activity in

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bagram , so a little bit different

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viewpoints um of what I did in those

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areas , so just different that way as

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far as like culture . Um And

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uh Iraq we had a

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lot of interaction with the locals as

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far as those that came and picked up

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our scrap and a lot of uh um

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interpreter that stayed with us . So we

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got to learn a lot about them and as

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people as their culture , which was

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really intriguing to me . Um

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Afghanistan , even though we had some

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of that , they were much more reserved ,

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they did not really want to engage a

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whole lot at least in . Um and I was

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the boss there too . So um that I think

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had a lot to do with it to um there

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wasn't that engagement like I had had

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with the locals in Iraq

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I think in the different cultures , I

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think in the Iraqi culture . Well yes ,

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I was a female um it was , they were

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intrigued and they wanted to know now

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one of the questions was you know how

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many husbands and how many babies they

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do you have . So the culture was

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different but they were still intrigued

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in Afghanistan , They were very

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standoffish . So yeah , I would say , I

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mean I have to make an assumption there

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that that was part of it , that yes ,

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being a female in charge as well um had

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a lot to do with that , There's lots of

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stories I would say probably for me and

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in Iraq it was , it was

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personable , you know , they really

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wanted to know what was America like

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what was because they had gone

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many of them when they were there in

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their early twenties , someone were

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older um but many of those that were

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coming in to do and remove our scrap

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were in their mid twenties and so

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they'd already had 10 years . I kind of

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called them the last generation because

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they had a stomach , they had had a

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very robust um education system , but

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then This particular group had not

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really had an education system for 10

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years and to hear them talk about what

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they wanted and what they wanted to see

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achieved in their country to get back

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to education for their Children . That

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was very intriguing to me and very

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touching to be able to have that

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communication and um just really their

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passion for their country and what they

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wanted it to be . So I always took that

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away as kind of a kind of made me feel

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good um that maybe we played a role in

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helping get that , get that rolling

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in a contingency operations a lot of

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times when we first go into a theater

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or things like that . We will um we are

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physically doing the work . So we

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meaning disposition service and

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civilian employees . So , and sometimes

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that might be military , but often

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times it's um , it is the civilian

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employees that are doing that and so

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we're doing the receiving of that

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property . Um , the warehousing , which

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really means you're doing it in a like

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a lot and you don't necessarily have a

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warehouse in which to do that , you're

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organizing that . But we are the ones

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we're running the forklifts were doing

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the heavy equipment movement and things

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like that were literally the ones if we

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have property that needs to be

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mutilated were doing that destruction

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of that item . But then also um if we

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can't just were not mutilating it ,

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we're d milling it , which is really

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getting rid in any offensive or

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defensive capabilities . We will use

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cutting torches , we will use plasma

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cutters where we are physically

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actually out there in that 100 degree

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heat or more with cutting equipment ,

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cutting gear , safety gear on

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physically doing that cutting , it's

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very hot . It's very . Um it's what we

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trained for . However , still doing it

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physically . It takes a toll on the

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personnel moving forward when we go

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when we are in those contingency

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operations . Once we have an

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established , I would say location , we

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will move in and the idea is to move in

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contract labor that then helps us with

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all that . And then we are just uh ,

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really performing oversight of that

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contract and the contract and the labor

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in which they're doing it . So that's

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kind of the change . It still happens

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today . Um , but um , we try to use

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usually maybe like uh , I would say a

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33 to 6 month cycle that we would have

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to go through to establish that

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contract labor . So , um , that's ,

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that's kind of what we do . I think the

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motivation for me , number one was my

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peers because of course many of them

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had gone and come . Um , I was a

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volunteer . Many of our employees are ,

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um , they're required . It's part of

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their job and as a position in which

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they accept I was a volunteer . It was

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for me really was just , it was , I had

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to say it was an adventure . It was and

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maybe that wasn't the right mindset to

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put yourself into that situation . But

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that's what I was really looking at it

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as is um , to do something I had never

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done before and go to a place that I

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would probably never have the

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opportunity to ever go into again . Um ,

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I think the other thing that was unique

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about Iraq versus others is in many of

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the bases that you go to . Um , later

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on when they're more enduring . They

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put up big walls around the basis in

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that situation . We didn't have that .

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So we'll have um they always put our

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yards kind of in the back corner , but

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you'll have a fence kind of no man's

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land , you might have another fence to

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my butt , right there was the farmer in

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his field with his sheep and everything

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else . And and I would see him every

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day , you know , and I would wave to

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the farmer and the farmer would wave to

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me every day and that just to me was um

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it was important . It was important to

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just , you know , right outside of us

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is just normal life for him and um I

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appreciated that I wouldn't have ever

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had that opportunity . Um although to ,

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without volunteering and and having

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that chance to go . Um Afghanistan was

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a little different . By the time I made

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it to Afghanistan , it was a well

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enduring site . We were surrounded by

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walls at that point in time . And so

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you didn't really see that outside

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world and we don't regularly like go

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off base . That's not a that's not a

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normal thing for us . The things that

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made me stay with this position ,

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service says , I think in the beginning

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was stability . Um at that time I

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didn't , you know , it was young , it

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was 18 years old , I didn't really know

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what I wanted to do with my life or

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career . So I think it just offered me

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opportunities and as I continued to

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work here , worked in many different

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areas within disposition services .

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Yeah .