Before the Army, I tried going to Universal Technical Institute to learn how to work on cars. I still enjoy it, but I wasn't very good at it and didn't want to make it my life's work. I was bouncing around trying to figure out what I wanted to do. One of my high school friends had joined the Army and came back on leave and handed me a packet that said you could try out for Special Forces right off the street. Like any egotistical 20-year-old, I figured I could do that. I went and talked to the recruiter, and four months later I was on a plane going, what did I just do?

I went through the 18X-ray program, signing up for Special Forces right off the bat — nine weeks of basic at Fort Benning, Georgia, then five more weeks of infantry school, then airborne school, then the special operations prep course at Fort Bragg, then selection, then the qualification course, which took anywhere from nine months to two years depending on the job and language. I was assigned to 7th Group at Fort Bragg and deployed.

My first deployment was to Afghanistan, maneuvering through perilous terrain and encountering Taliban forces.