Veterans are a group within our society that is often misunderstood or misrepresented by our media. We often look like ordinary members of society;
Afghanistan was a particularly terrible place, which somehow I have come to miss. The expanse of desert in the southern provinces of Afghanistan had brutal heat and sand that found its way into every place imaginable and a
The difficulty of “route clearance” is that you never know what is beneath you. The brutal reality is, sometimes you have to find IEDs the hard way – setting them off accidentally. Litter, potholes, lines in the sand, and virtually any other disturbance in the ground was an indicator to us. The rush of adrenaline when you find one is
For your typical college student, these experiences are unfathomable. Since we have experienced the world in such a dramatically different way, our thought process is alien to that of the typical student. We have seen the worst that humanity can do to itself, the purest forms of hatred and disregard for human life.
Nearly every veteran has, to some degree, post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not what defines
We are a different breed of Americans; we answered when the call came, and we did it not for recognition but for the sake of those who could not or would not. We did it for the American people, for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and for each other.
In the
Peter Bronner is a junior studying war and peace studies. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What questions do you have for veterans on Ohio University's campus? Let Peter know by tweeting him pb124614@ohio.edu.