Steven Bush, raised partly in Germany and partly in the United States, grew up in a military family. In the early 1990s he enlisted as an m-day soldier, and then he decided to go for full active duty in the National Guard. He did his basic training in Fort Sill and was deployed three times to Desert Storm, Bosnia, and Iraq.

Ken Shabhaz recounts his service in the Air Force as a base supply officer in Montgomery, Alabama. He served for a few years in the Vietnam War and then went back to school for Economics. He never was stationed outside the United States but was moved around to several different cities.

Nathan Hester joined the military to serve his country and fight in the War on Terrorism. He was a cavalry scout serving in the National Guard and was deployed for ten months in Iraq. His primary job there was counter IED missions.

SPC Seth Crawley is a specialist in the National Guard and was stationed in Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was there for about a year fighting the terrorism of Al Qaeda. He explains that it has been hard adjusting back to regular life, especially on his digestive system and mental health.

Haimes Kilgore, interviewed by Judkin Browning, enlisted in the Mississippi National Guard at age 17. He was deployed into combat twice, the first time during Operation Desert Storm and the second time to Saudi Arabia, and speaks of his experiences.