How Has Serving Impacted You?

We all remember when the US Army tweeted a simple question. "How Has Serving Impacted You?" I thought this warranted some reflection. Especially, since hindsight is 2020 (pun intended).In one particularly popular responses, a man spoke about how his wife had 10 Jodys, and now he's afraid of fireworks. You can't help but feel sympathy while you laugh at that. Overall, the answers of this Twitter question ranged from mildly humorous, to extremely dark and tragic. In fact, reading them hurts as I've seen myself in some of those very circumstances.Nevertheless, the one thing that I saw missing in those answers and...maybe I missed it. After all, I am nothing more than a slightly average crayon eater, was talk of the camaraderie.I don't mean to get all deep and philosophical about it, but truth be told it was hard to read those responses. Especially the dark ones, and I couldn't help but think..."Where the hell were their battle buddies at?" Where was this...tribe we all boast about so heroically while pounding on our chests...Maybe they missed out on that part, which is why they ended up in the circumstances they were in. Felt like...they'd be a burden or something to someone. I definitely don't have all the answers, especially to every single one of those. I know I am going to sound like a broken record when I say this. Although, I'll stop saying it when people start listening, and taking action with respect to it. Reach out. You'll be surprised who actually gives a damn.

I would like to challenge anyone reading this to two simple tasks.

1. Reach out to someone you haven't talked to in years.
2. List how "How Has Serving Impacted You?" in the comments below.

Do one, or both or none. Either way, just remember that the unit is only as strong as the weakest link. We need to take care of each other, and this community.