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Oral histories documenting the varied backgrounds, journeys, and perspectives of Salem State University veterans from enlistment to boot camp to deployment and back to civilian life.

"The rate I was going I wasn’t going to end up anywhere five star, you know?"

"If you, are going into the reserves, use it for just getting a foot in the civilian world."

"Join the military and get out of poverty because that was the lifestyle that Lynn brought to my family."

"We are not getting into our career field for the safety of it."

"You don't necessarily hear too much about the military assisting people."

"As smart as I thought I was, my kids knew from day one there was something wrong."

"We were just kind of ants just waiting to be stepped on."

"I figured the military would buy me some time to sort of figure out what I was doing."

"After awhile you just kinda don't care. What are the odds if they haven’t hit us yet?"

"The biggest risk the US has now is trying to solve too many of the world’s problems militarily."

"I’m a student, I’m a veteran, I’m not active duty. This is me now."

"I didn't know how to deal with the things that we had seen, that we had experienced."

"I'm still going to be me but I'm going to do it the right way."

"You have to pay attention to what you're doing. You have to know where you are."

They were telling us conflict was not going to have any clear cut victory anymore.

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