Introductory Speech
As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” With this introductory speech I will discussing my military background and the strength themes of Empathy, Adaptability, and Courage in order to overcome obstacles that have lead me to where I am today.
When I decided to enlist in the Army not too far out of high school, I had no idea of the tremendous impact it would have on my life. Basic training and the first two years were fairly routine for the life of a fresh young soldier who just enlisted in the National Guard. Full of paper work, drilling, and monotonous routine. It wasn’t until there was a battalion formation in which everyone was told a deployment to Iraq was pending, and we would all be going that the gravity and weight of my decision had set in. As you can imagine a million emotions ran through me at once. Fear of the unknown being the greatest. On the plane ride over I almost got sick to my stomach at least a dozen times, but having my brothers in arms right there with me was extremely helpful. We were all in this together. Adapting to the environment of the Middle East was no easy thing. 100 to 115 degrees on an average day during the summer months and it certainly felt much hotter than that. So hot on some days I couldn’t stand to be outside longer than 15 minutes. Needless to say it didn’t take long for our commander to decide that night missions were the way to go. At first this seemed like a great thing, but what’s the biggest drawback of going out at night? You can’t see much because its dark. I don’t know if anyone here has ever spent a night in the desert, but it can get almost pitch black. I was nervous to say the least. But I found courage in my friends, we found it in each other. There’s a...