WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:03.075 align:middle line:84% While I was there, I put a picture 00:00:03.075 --> 00:00:04.200 align:middle line:90% in the front of this today. 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:05.940 align:middle line:84% Maybe I'll show it to you guys later if you're interested, 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:08.250 align:middle line:84% but my boss is right here in this picture. 00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:11.088 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I put pictures in here because people talk and stuff 00:00:11.088 --> 00:00:12.630 align:middle line:84% before and I sort of get out of where 00:00:12.630 --> 00:00:15.090 align:middle line:84% I'm supposed to be when I read these poems, you know. 00:00:15.090 --> 00:00:19.830 align:middle line:84% And my boss, he was an infantryman 00:00:19.830 --> 00:00:23.490 align:middle line:84% and I was an infantry soldier, so he really loved his job. 00:00:23.490 --> 00:00:25.680 align:middle line:84% And I'm not talking about killing people and things 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:27.960 align:middle line:84% like that, I'm saying he wanted to serve his country 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.390 align:middle line:90% and be a warrior. 00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:32.340 align:middle line:84% He had that ethos, being a warrior. 00:00:32.340 --> 00:00:35.880 align:middle line:84% And I was very different from him in a lot of ways. 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:37.770 align:middle line:84% But at one point, he and I were talking 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:39.622 align:middle line:84% because he, like a lot of people, 00:00:39.622 --> 00:00:41.580 align:middle line:84% was frustrated with the fact that we were being 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:43.102 align:middle line:90% mortared by indirect fire. 00:00:43.102 --> 00:00:45.060 align:middle line:84% So someone would attack us and try and kill us, 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:45.660 align:middle line:90% but we couldn't-- 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:47.640 align:middle line:84% It was frustrating because you couldn't do anything about it. 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:50.130 align:middle line:84% You couldn't meet that person on the field of battle. 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:51.210 align:middle line:90% You know what I mean? 00:00:51.210 --> 00:00:54.270 align:middle line:84% And someone who's trained as an infantry 00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:56.520 align:middle line:84% soldier, the mission of the infantry 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:58.800 align:middle line:84% is to close with and destroy the enemy. 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:01.890 align:middle line:84% Not to capture them, not to stop them from what they're doing, 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:03.030 align:middle line:90% but to destroy them. 00:01:03.030 --> 00:01:04.709 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:01:04.709 --> 00:01:06.330 align:middle line:84% But someone's trying to do that to us, 00:01:06.330 --> 00:01:08.193 align:middle line:90% so that frustration mounted. 00:01:08.193 --> 00:01:10.110 align:middle line:84% And I remember at one point our squad was away 00:01:10.110 --> 00:01:12.318 align:middle line:84% and it wasn't Sergeant Turner and Sergeant so-and-so. 00:01:12.318 --> 00:01:14.187 align:middle line:84% It's kind of like Brian and James talking. 00:01:14.187 --> 00:01:16.020 align:middle line:84% I remember him saying, man, sometimes I just 00:01:16.020 --> 00:01:17.970 align:middle line:84% want to put them in the hurt locker. 00:01:17.970 --> 00:01:20.700 align:middle line:84% I was like, man, that's a weird phrase. 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:22.020 align:middle line:90% Don't you think? 00:01:22.020 --> 00:01:23.940 align:middle line:90% It's pretty bizarre phrase, man. 00:01:23.940 --> 00:01:26.460 align:middle line:84% And it just stuck in my head and then finally this poem 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:29.500 align:middle line:84% came out I think kind of from that place. 00:01:29.500 --> 00:01:31.560 align:middle line:90% So it's sort of for my boss. 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:33.450 align:middle line:90% "The Hurt Locker." 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:35.130 align:middle line:90% Nothing but the hurt left here. 00:01:35.130 --> 00:01:37.200 align:middle line:84% Nothing but bullets and pain and all the 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:39.780 align:middle line:84% bled out slumping and all the fucks and God damns, 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:41.520 align:middle line:90% Jesus Christs of the wounded. 00:01:41.520 --> 00:01:43.680 align:middle line:90% Nothing left here but the hurt. 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:46.090 align:middle line:90% But believe it when you see it. 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:50.340 align:middle line:84% Believe it when a 12-year-old rolls a grenade into the room, 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:53.790 align:middle line:84% a sniper punches a hole deep into someone's skull. 00:01:53.790 --> 00:01:56.790 align:middle line:84% Believe it when four men step from a taxicab in Mosul 00:01:56.790 --> 00:02:00.000 align:middle line:84% to shower the street in brass and fire. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:01.530 align:middle line:84% Open the hurt locker and see what 00:02:01.530 --> 00:02:03.720 align:middle line:90% there is of knives and teeth. 00:02:03.720 --> 00:02:06.810 align:middle line:84% Open the hurt locker and learn how rough men 00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:10.259 align:middle line:90% come hunting for souls. 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:12.070 align:middle line:90% And it's an ugly business. 00:02:12.070 --> 00:02:14.790 align:middle line:84% And people ask me sometimes what I say to people if they ask me 00:02:14.790 --> 00:02:16.853 align:middle line:84% about joining the military and I say, 00:02:16.853 --> 00:02:18.270 align:middle line:84% when you're signing that contract, 00:02:18.270 --> 00:02:20.790 align:middle line:84% you have to realize the business you're getting in. 00:02:20.790 --> 00:02:22.116 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:02:22.116 --> 00:02:23.820 align:middle line:84% I'm not saying it isn't patriotic. 00:02:23.820 --> 00:02:26.640 align:middle line:84% I put my hand up and I joined the military 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:30.540 align:middle line:84% and I respect the fact, but it's not just about college money, 00:02:30.540 --> 00:02:32.300 align:middle line:90% you know? 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:33.000 align:middle line:90%