Life Lessons from the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan

While reading Sebastian Junger's book 'War', I came across a few passages that really reminded me of the breadth of strength that we all posses. You don't have to be holding camp in one of the most dangerous war zones in Afghanistan to require greatness and focus from yourself on a daily basis. Use wisdom, learn from the sacrifices of your ancestors and of those that silently defend you, whatever country you may inhabit. Whether you believe in the ideals of the hand pushing the machine or not, learn from these people that put their life on the line. Don't waste your freedom by succumbing to the mental limitations of this age. Be inspired

" There are different kinds of strength, and containing fear may be the most profound, the one without which armies couldn't function and wars couldn't be fought (God forbid.) There are big, tough guys in the Army who are cowards and small, feral-looking dudes, like Monroe, who will methodically take apart a SAW* while rounds are slapping the rocks all around them. The more literal forms of strength, like carrying 160 pounds up a mountain, depend more obviously on the size of your muscles, but muscles only do what you tell them, so it still keeps coming back to the human spirit."

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"Giving into fear or exhaustion were the ways in which a soldier could fail his platoon. But there were ways in which a reporter could screw things up as well. Tim broke his ankle in a nighttime operation on the Abas Ghar, but the medic told him that it was only sprained so that mentally, Tim would think he could walk on it...and he did. There was no other way to get him out of there and if the platoon were still on the mountain at dawn, they were going to get hammered. He walked all night on a fractured fibula with only Motrin as a pain killer, and they didn't tell him it was broken until he got to the cob**.

* Squad Automatic Weapon

**Contingency Operating Base