COAST GUARD 2010-2018 — On invisible service

Eight years, two stations, one rescue swimmer rating. The thing I want anyone reading this to understand is that the Coast Guard is real. We don't run downrange but we have a casualty rate per mission that would shock people if they looked it up. I'm not writing this to compete. I'm writing because for years I felt like a fraud at veteran events. I'd hear guys talk about combat and I'd shut up about my work. I'd pulled five people out of February water in the Bering Sea by the time I was twenty-three. I lost a teammate on a mission I won't describe. My service was real. So was the cost. Headstrong gave me my first therapist who didn't try to compare my service to anyone else's. She just asked what had happened. I told her. We worked on it. I stopped feeling like I needed to apologize for my branch every time I introduced myself. If anybody else in this branch is reading: your service counts. Stop apologizing for it. Get the help.