SGT Chris Hill

Sergeant Chris Hill sat down with me for Heroes Live. Patriot air defender. 14 Tango.

Richmond, Indiana. Barely a city. Peers going the wrong way. He wanted out. Air Force had a waitlist. Army had a Patriot video and a ten-thousand-dollar bonus. He was eighteen.

Basic was easy except the rucks. Shoulders. AIT at Bliss. Alpha, 552nd. Six or eight months. Then Korea, late 2006. Suwon. Camp Carroll. Same faces. Redmond. Mason Miller. Table 12. A unit that was actually a unit.

First soju knocked him down. They walked him home. A brawl by the activity center. Closest he came to dying was a tent fire. Potbelly stove. Field. They woke up in time.

Korea again. Then Hood. Then Korea a third time and Kuwait, 2014. ARSOP first-time go as NCOIC. Captain Shafer. Then the old 552 and the 21st broke up. He said that was the hardest part. He was used to the same guys.

Bravo 552 after that was babysitting. AWOLs. Understaffed. Promotable more than once. Cutoff scores. He got out in 2015 for Rebecca and the kids. Fourteen-year-old. Twelve-year-old on a football field. Aliana, six, funny as she wants to be.

Lockheed Martin now. He draws the missiles. Sergeant Pierce. Chafin. The NCOs who taught a kid with an absent father what responsibility looks like.

Shout-out to all the old 552 and 21 guys. He is always there if they need something. Thank you, Chris. That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.