In the Marines, I was stunned, absolutely stunned, at everything around me, at what the world looked like.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The Marines gave me a really strong sense of discipline and a work ethic that kicks in at my job.
Russell James asked me to shoot underwater. He tied my feet under the water. I don't know how many feet - maybe five, six meters. He tied me underwater and I had no air. Somebody had a tube, and they were giving me some oxygen, but I couldn't really see anything. Everything was blurry. I'm waiting for the oxygen - that was the craziest thing.
I woke up and all I could see was Iraqis standing all around me, looking down upon me. I knew at that moment something terrible had happened and I wasn't in the right place.
As a Marine officer in combat, I was responsible for the lives and safety of all the Marines who served with me.
My suit blew up into a parachute. All this water rushed in, there's air, water in there. I was freaking out.
When I was a child, I saw my father diving to the deepest point in the ocean with the U.S. Navy.
I knew many Marines had done brave deeds that no one saw and for which they got no medals at all. I was having a very hard time carrying those medals and didn't have the insight or maturity to know what to do with my combination of guilt and pride.
I was standing on the deck of the USS Blue, a destroyer. We were all alone out there at this buoy, tied up.
When we got down from the ambulances there were sharp cracks about us as bursts of shrapnel splashed down upon the Town Hall square. Dead soldiers lay outside and I glanced at them coldly. We were in search of the living.
When I was in the war, I was lucky that I was in a plane and never saw the carnage close-up.