The man that I had the privilege of interviewing wishes to remain anonymous.

However he has granted me permission to share his story with you all today. John Doe was born on the tenth of June 1988. He is the youngest of four boys and the oldest of two girls. He was adopted into a family that had two brothers who already had joined the military. Due to their influence he decided at a very early age to join the military his original intention was to join the Air Force, however he decided to join the same unit as his brothers in the army. He signed up for the Army National Guard partly because by doing so would allow him to go on a LDS mission when he turned 19. John joined the military on his 18th birthday in 2006 and is still in the army. His service has been completed, however he is on what is called M-day status due to an investigation of an injury he sustained while on deployment, where he does one weekend a month and two weeks a year. He was deployed to Afghanistan for a year. John is an E-5 or a Sergeant. Johns job in the army was called route clearance which is where he would go up and down the roads and look for bombs and when he found one of them, his job was to dig them up and get rid of them. He has been in four explosions but has only sustained injuries in two of them. While on deployment he would wake up in time to be on the trucks two hours before their mission for the day. They then would get breakfast at the chow hall if it was open, and if not they would get some bagels or something. He said that the missions were normally boring but that they had to be alert because all it takes is missing one thing and someone to be killed. When they would get back to the base they would refit their vehicles and get them ready for the next mission.

John Doe has received 12 awards, most of them are common for all soldiers who are deployed to Afghanistan. The highest award he has is the order of the Purple Heart, it is given to soldiers who are wounded in combat by the enemy. The second highest award that John has been given is the Army Commendation medal which was awarded for his extra work in learning about the radios which allowed him to help maintain the radios, and for his high moral standard. He was also awarded the Combat action badge which is given to soldiers who've been engaged in combat with the enemy. For good luck John had a Sons of Helaman coin that his dad gave him that he carried on all of his missions. I asked John how the soldiers entertain themselves and he said for the most part soldiers would play video games or watch videos. I also asked him if he could recall any particularly humorous or unusual events and he said that sometimes they would drive through areas where bombs were common and they would hold their hands over the sides of their headsets and yell no whammy no whammy no whammy. I then asked John if he had made any close friends while in the service and he said that he did, several of the soldiers he served with have become some of his very close friends and he has stayed in contact with many others. Currently John is going to school, he is studying accounting at Utah State University and plans to graduate in the spring of 2015. I asked John if his education has been supported by the G.I. Bill and he said yes about half of his education has been paid for by the G.I. Bill and he's very grateful for it. I asked John how his being in the army changed his life and he said that his service in the Army has driven him to be more motivated to get an education that he might not have been able to had he not joined. I also asked John if he felt like he has

made a difference while serving in the army and his response was Maybe a little bit. Our job was to clear the bombs out of the roads and that allowed others to travel the roads about getting hurt. I for one think that he made more than just a little difference. I think the service that he was able to give and all the lives that he probably saved by the job that he did was very noble. I am very grateful for the men and women who serve our country and keep us and those of other countries safe and I am proud that they can fight to do it's right. I have had the privilege to have known many great men and women who have served this country in more ways than one. One of my best friends joined the army right out of high school. Her courage and bravery inspires me. I am so grateful that she would be willing to go to war when so many people would rather run away. My grandfather Rodney Fairborn Hanger served in the end of World War II and also in the Korean conflict. He was a cook on a Navy ship during the Korean conflict. His job just as a cook on the ship was so important because you have to keep the men fed so they can fight and they can do what they need to, to help serve this country to the best of their abilities. One of my other grandfather's Avelino Bacca also served in the navy during the Korean conflict. My last grandfather David Clyde Campbell did not serve in any wars but he served in a different way. He was a police officer who served for 40+ years. He it was in the Salt Lake City motorcade during the time that Kennedy was here. He started the West Valley police force and was police chief of West Valley. And there are many others I have come across in my life that I am grateful for the service.

The war in Afghanistan has been going on since October 7, 2001 and is still going on today. The war in Afghanistan refers to the intervention by an NATO and Allied forces in the ongoing Afghan Civil War. The war followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in an effort to dismantle Al Qaeda and a eliminate its Safe haven by removing the Taliban from power. US President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel Al Qaeda. The Taliban requested that bin Laden leave the country, but declined to extradite him without evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The United States refused to negotiate and launched Operation Enduring Freedom on 7 October 2001 with the United Kingdom. The two were later joined by other forces, including the Northern alliance. The U.S. and allies drove the Taliban from power and built military bases near major cities across the country. Most Al Qaeda and Taliban were not captured escaping to neighboring Pakistan or retreating to rural or remote mountainous regions. On September 11 Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil denounced the terrorist attack, whoever is behind it. The following day President Bush called the attacks more than just acts a terror but acts of war and resolved pursue and conquer an enemy that would no longer be safe in it's harbors. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef said on 13 September that the Taliban would consider extraditing bin Laden if there was solid evidence linking him to the attacks. Though in 2004, Osama bin Laden eventually took responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, he denied having any involvement in a statement issued on September 17 and by interview on September 29.

Karzai, the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, visited the U.S. in January 2012. At the time the U.S. stated its openness to withdrawing all of its troops by the end of 2014. On January 11, 2012 Karzai and Obama agreed to transfer combat operations from NATO to Afghan forces by spring 2013 rather than summer 2013. "What's going to happen this spring is that Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country", Obama said. "They [ISAF forces] will still be fighting alongside Afghan troops...We will be in a training, assisting, advising role." "We achieved our central goal, or have come very close...which is to de-capacitate al-Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can't attack us again," Obama added. Obama also stated that he would determine the pace of troop withdrawal after consultations with commanders. He added that any U.S. mission beyond 2014 would focus solely on counterterrorism operations and training. Both leaders agreed that the United States would transfer Afghan prisoners and prisons to the Afghan government and withdraw troops from Afghan villages in spring 2013. "The international forces, the American forces, will be no longer present in the villages, that it will be the task of the Afghan forces to provide for the Afghan people in security and protection," the Afghan president said. So many people have died and fought and served for our country and I'm just so grateful that there are brave and courageous people to help keep me safe in any way that they can serve, whether that's being a police officer or a politician or someone in the army. And it doesn't matter what they do I'm so grateful for the service that they could provide for our country and everything that they do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)