Meet Arthur Bentley — 2016 Veteran
Hello, my name is Arthur A. Bentley. I am a US Army Veteran with two tours to Afghanistan. My military career began on September 12, 2000 when I started my boot camp at Fort Sill Oklahoma. From Fort Sill I went to Fort Bliss Texas where I started my AIT for Avenger crew member. After my AIT at Fort Bliss I was sent to Fort Drum New York.
While at Fort Drum I was deployed for my first tour in October of 2001. We were deployed to Uzbekistan to make BASS before going into Afghanistan to take over Bagram Air Field. At Bagram, we were a mile away from the base on the border pulling air support 24 hours on and 24 hours off.
We moved into Afghanistan, took the airfield, and stayed in buildings that were hit by rockets and air strikes. We started Operation Anaconda in the mountain tops. We were up there for three days and got pinned down.
My daughter was born while I was over there. I was able to see her when she was three months old. The day after I returned home, she celebrated her first birthday. We got back and I stayed until 2011, at which point I could no longer serve in this same role.
After that mission we pulled out and started our trip home. I got out of active duty and went into the National Guard. I was just married and was expecting a baby when I got the orders to go back overseas.
I was a diesel mechanic and reached Afghanistan in 2004-2005 where I was either out on the FOBS or on the road doing convoys and keeping equipment going. At one of the bases we got hit by RPGs and small arms fire almost every night. We had one RPG bounce into our tent then out again. All our lives flashed in front of us.
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Jeff Anderson
CEO/Founder, Rebuilding Warriors
