By WIDLINE NASANES

Afghanistan War, international conflict in Afghanistan beginning in 2001 that was triggered by the September 11 attacks and consisted of three phases. 

INTERVIEW WITH Veteran CALEB CHARLES

TRANSCRIPT:

WN: I´m Widline and I am interviewing a friend of mine, Caleb Charles, who is 52 years old. He now resides in North Carolina. Who is in the US ARMY. 

CC: I spent 20 years serving in the military. This September of this years is my last day serving in the service 

WN: ok.. Um. Can you please tell me why you joined the military?

CC: I first joined the military to fight for the country and serve the people of the United States because I heard John F. Kennedy says one time ¨ ask not what you can do for your country. Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country and so with that line alone inspire me to join and serve my country. 

WN: Ok um. Since you were in the military have you been deployed before? 

CC: yes I actually have been deployed many times before. I have been to IRAQ, I´ve been to AFGHANISTAN, and I also been to IRAN, 

WN: Can you please tell me more about the Afghanistan war

CC: well the afghanistan war was a very strange one because we wasn’t fighting, we wasn’t fighting um a conventional war but a war against terroism and so it was a bit hard for us to fight because they attack us and run and hiding in the mountains because in afghanistan is mostly desert and so we get attack and they ran and we were trying to fight them. And that’s how they be setting up traps,IDF, IDF also mean indirect contact, land mime so we had to be very cautious. It was uh it was scary scary thoughts even for a soldier to be walking in an unknown land. So each in every day we keep our guard up any little sign or act of movement would trigger us so we had to cautious that we don’t hurt the civilians and innocent people but it was hard to tell who was innocent and who was not until they point a weapon at us sometimes itś too late but that’s the life  us soldier live really.   

WN: umm… can you tell me how did you live through that event 

CC: I lived through that event mostly with trauma because anybody who’s seen war pray for peace… nobody who’s ever been to war ever prayed for war because war is ugly,  it’s horrible and horrifying.. You dream about it, live it and you just pray one day that your cause was not in vain. You pray that one day that peace would prevail because war there’s nothing to gain from it other than blood and tears. 

WN: umm… can you please tell me some of the changes in your life after the event..

CC: Well after that event, I have so many traumas that one time I remember that I went to see some fireworks with my family and then as the firework went off I nearly hit the ground because i’m not used… I forgot that i’m no longer in afghanistan but home and so when I heard the fireworks i thought it was IDF also known as  Indirect fire. And so I nearly hit the ground to take some shelter from the IDF but nobody knew why because they don’t know how traumatic that everyday bullets and lead is falling down on us like its rain but we try our best to hold our own advance against everything. 

RELATED STORIES: 

9/11 Attacks 

September 11 attacks, also called 9/11 attacks, series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history. The attacks against New York City and Washington, D.C., caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous U.S. effort to combat terrorism.