Soldier Up Read Online Free Page A

Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science; he wasn’t athletic in High School, never played in any sports, it wasn’t until College that he actually started to jog some and that was mostly stress relief.  He found that he enjoyed running and it gave him the opportunity to think about things.  Eventually his runs became longer and longer running up to fifteen miles at a time.
                  There were always all sorts of Military Recruiters on Campus and he never thought much about them until he got closer to graduation.  He had gotten to a point where he wanted to break out of the computer nerd persona he had since High School and really wanted to reinvent himself.  One day he stopped by the US Army recruiting booth and had a talk with a couple of guys there.  He liked the idea of being a Soldier but his family wouldn’t be happy.  No one in his family had ever been in the military that he knew of.  He had gone back several more times to speak to the recruiters before making a decision, everything they told him made it sound so good.
                  One day, thirty days from graduation, he decided that he would sign up and he did.  After graduation he would head to Fort Benning Georgia for Officer Candidate School (OCS), he would start OCS the day after his twenty-first birthday.  It was a twelve week course that would teach him everything he would need to know as a brand new 2 nd Lieutenant, so he thought. 
                  He arrived at Ft. Benning with a crowd of other potential OCS candidates they were ushered into a large building told to take seats then all hell broke loose.  Drill Sergeant’s started running around barking orders at them, do this, do that and do it now! Candidates were running all over the place it was chaos.  It seems like it went on the entire twelve weeks and then off to Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course (IBOLC) also at Benning.  After he completed that it was off to jump school and then pathfinder school also at Benning. 
                  While going through pathfinder he was convinced by the cadre and others that he should attend Ranger School while he’s at it, he figured what the hell, he applied and was accepted.  The school was also located at Benning; this by and large would the hardest training he would go through to date.  He felt he was in the best shape in his life and was ready.  Once he graduated from pathfinder, all of three weeks, he moved over to the Ranger School at Camp Rodgers.  It was now going to be nine more weeks of hell and hopefully complete it.
                  He unlike many actually enjoyed the challenges that Ranger School at Camp Rogers, well in and around Camp Rogers, brought him.  Of course there were times he thought he wasn’t going to make it, which is for the most part a death warrant to most Officers if they do, but he dug down deep and got it done.  He looked forward to each phase and pushed himself harder and harder to get through them feeling as an Officer he should be setting the example.
                  He graduated from Ranger school and was assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment, 2nd Battalion at Fort Lewis Washington as a platoon leader.  At first he loved it there and loved the job, he really learned a lot about Soldiering and he really cared for his Soldiers.  His Platoon Sergeant First Class (SFC) Rodrigo Aliso was Ranger through and through, out of fifteen years in the Army it’s all he knew and ever was.  As a brand new butter bar to the regiment SFC Aliso took him under his wing and taught him what it was to be a leader and helped hone his skills. 
                  His first combat tour was to Afghanistan for six months then came back to Ft. Lewis for about three months and they were deployed this time to Iraq for six months.  By the time he finished his second combat tour he had worked with a lot of Special Forces Soldiers and