Page 845 - Total War on PTSD

CHAPTER 15 - MY ALIVE DATE
Madison the Black Labrador, Bayley the Labradoodle, Griffin the Staffordshire Terrier, Riley the Korky/Terrier Mix and Jazmine the Staffordshire Terrier - Jerry: I served as a Damage Controlman (DC) and Riverine in the U.S. Navy from May 2001 through 2010. My service time included September 2001 through April 2002 (OEF Afghanistan), April through September 2003 (OIF Iraq), and April through June 2006 (OEF Afghanistan). If I was ever given the chance to serve again I definitely would. As a young adult I had little to no direction and a LOT of energy. I joined the U.S. Navy at 17 years of age. They started asking for First Class Swimmers to be a Shipboard Swimmer, and I qualified for that. Then they turned around and said they needed Battle Station Corpsman/Battle Station Triage. Well, at that the same place they offered that, they also offered EMT, and I requested that and then extended on agreement that I could get EMT, so I got First Class Swimmer/EMT. At the end of that I negotiated for another assignment and ended up being one of the last graduating classes for DC out of Treasure Island in San Francisco.
Then, when they required Fleet returnees to come back from Battle Stations, I was one of the first Fleet Returnees to do Battle Stations at Great Lakes. I was doing great until about 2000...a few months before 9/11. They came to us and said that they were thinking about implementing a Coastal Riverine Force to help out over in Iraq. The Riverines were around for a similar purpose
845 of 1042