I went to boarding school, and what that teaches you is to cope emotionally at a young age and to suppress a lot of emotion. Being in the army is, in a way, similar.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I first went to school, I was fighting all the time. The soldier mentality was still in me. I kept getting expelled. I found it hard to take instructions from anyone who wasn't a military commander.
I think I've got better at expressing my emotions. But going through the education system I went through - I don't think you can go to boarding school and come out without feeling a little repressed - yes, it does leave its mark on you.
Military people do not get what they want by being emotional.
When I happened to get into school, I felt like I could approach it as aggressively as things in the military.
What you experience in the army, aged 18 to 21, is what you take through all your life. You cross invisible lines: you shoot someone, get shot, break into people's houses. It's naive to think you won't carry anything into your life.
Besides, I think that when one has been through a boarding school, especially then, you have some resistance, because it was both fine comradeship and a fairly hard training.
It's not getting any better, is it? I don't want my 19-year-old boy going into the army. I love these little kids. They understand how passionate I am.
The constant movement of a military life can be tough on children. My father was an officer in the army, and I was forced to change elementary schools six times.
I loved the Army as an institution and loathed every single thing it required me to do.
I went through some real challenges growing up. I joined the Army two weeks out of high school when I was 17, and never looked back.