Knowledge

This tragic — but preventable — accident was a very difficult lesson to learn. I did several things right that night. I didn’t get behind the wheel after drinking and I wore my seat belt when we made that fateful trip to the store for food and drinks. But I also failed. I didn’t ensure everyone else in the truck was buckled up. Unfortunately, it cost two people, including my best friend, their lives.

My first assignment after entering active duty was on Fort Drum, New York. As someone who’d spent his entire life in South Carolina and Georgia, it was an environmental shock to say the least.