There was a kid who was giving hand in arm signals and our platoon leader actually had told me to fire a warning shot his way.

But it was kind of crazy. We had just gotten this vehicle. I'd never had a chance to zero in the sights.

When I took it to the test fire pit, I couldn't really tell what was shooting. It looked like it was shooting way to the right.

So I kind of put my radical right on the kid thinking that it was going to shoot to the right.

Well here that was actually their weapon was zeroed in.

Being under constant assault in a war zone, where is a person down in both expected and unexpected ways?

Sure, it wears you down physically, psychologically and emotionally.

But also it can wear down your soul, taking chips out of your humanity.

It's not merely that you begin to lose a sense of what's right and wrong.

So much as you start to lose a sense of why those distinctions even matter.

You know, it's changed me as a person. A lot.

I was getting very cold numb to things that you probably shouldn't get cold numb towards, you know.

You don't look at kids the same way anymore, at least for a period of time.

Yeah, it's fucked up. That's the most blunt way to put it. It's fucked up.

We take that for granted here. You see kids around and you want to see them happy, you know, with toys and all that.

Not in a war zone. No kid should ever have to get through that.

Joe Post had wanted to be in the military for most of his life.

He liked the notions of honor and bravery and discipline.

He liked the idea of being a part of something. He was tough and reliable.

I wanted to prove it. He wanted to test it.

It can sound a little cliche, but he truly wanted to serve his country.

And he did. Even though the experience was pretty much the way he expected it to be,

...