Sara schwartzberg

I was a munitions troop in the air National for 9 years. During that time I deployed to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2008 and 2011. During my deployments I would volunteer at the base hospital. Despite the fact that in Iraq I saw a horrendous amount of horror and suffering from the war it didn't fully impact me at the time. I completely believed that the US was a liberating force and that all the suffering and death was for a greater good. My second deployment to Afghanistan really opened my eyes. As an Ammo troop I worked with all the munitions that were there and primarily I built bombs. When I arrived I was completely shocked by what was going on. The amount of bombs we were dropping was staggering. It was far more than at the height of the surge in Iraq let alone compared to the first time I was in Afghanistan. it just didn't make any sense to me we had been at war for over 10 years and I thought we winning so who were we bombing? the base had also grown immensely and had become full of civilians. It was as if the war was being outsourced. When I finally had a day off I visited the base hospital and there happened to be an insurgent there. He was covered in burns and his bandages needed to be be changed. I remember the nurse saying "if you really want to you can put the burn cream on him but he's a bad guy". I looked at this poor man covered in horrible burns and restrained to the bed he was a small man, and he was filthy and he didn't look like some evil, scary enemy... He looked like a man that was in excruciating pain and was absolutely terrified. I made sure to apply the burn cream as gently as possible and at that moment I decided I didn't want to build bombs anymore. After my return I decided to become a combat medic but despite finding a unit that wanted me my unit refused to let me leave. I ended up being sexually assaulted by a supervisor, harassed, and bullied and in the end lost both my career and my mind.