My Brother; Who Is In The Army

Less than one percent of the United States population, in their life time, gives a part of their life to the armed services. When I was fifteen, my brother took up arms to defend his country. He was eight years my senior.
I would like to say that having a military man in our family changed me somehow, changed my family in some way. If I were to say that, I would be telling the truth.
My brother was not the golden child of our family. On the contrary, he was the problem child. We would blame it on his ADHD, or his learning disability, or his place as the middle child in our family. All of these things were true, yet none of them explained the true feelings he had. Simply, my brother was not happy. He was not athletic, nor academic. He had problems with initiative, as well as laziness. You can imagine why the army was a perfect fit.

It was a huge change for him. Up to his training in bootcamp he had  never lived beyond the safety of our home. He had never been to college. He had only held menial jobs that my parents or other siblings set up for him. He was not ready in the slightest. 

However, this is not a story of failure. After three of the hardest months of his life, along with another two of ASOT (Advanced Special Operations Training), he became a Specialist in the United States Army. During his time of training he learned not only the basics of becoming a soldier, but also everything a soldier needs to know about military generators. During an operation, such as the one in Afghanistan, it is his job to make sure front line generators are running at full capacity. It is also a two way street in that during an invasion, it is his job to disable or commandeer an enemy's generators. 

Needless to say, when I saw him in his formal military attire, I was very proud. I would wager to say it was the first time that I had ever felt like this man was my older brother. The role model, the cool guy, and the one every little brother looks up to. He is my brother, and he is in the Army.