Why I believe that America should bring back the draft | Emmanuel Bernadin | TEDxHerndon
yesterday I turned 29 today I have the privilege to share with you all what I have come to learn in my 29 years of living here on this Earth with all of you I took some time in the last hour of my 29th day of being here on this Earth to reflect and go through history and I'd like to take some time today to share with you all the conclusions that I've derived to for my hour or so of reflection history teaches us a lot we live in a day in a time where we're fortunate that we don't have to sacrifice Our Lives to enjoy our freedoms why is that because we live in a country we have one of the world's strongest militaries less than 1% of our populace is our United States military my name is Emanuel Bernard I was born May 20th 1987 I am a only boy among Seven Sisters and lo and behold I decided to join the United States Navy July of 2007 I walked into the military and I had entered a world that was unprecedented to me or anyone within my family lineage see my family immigrated here from island called Haiti in the early 80s and they came here to give the generations behind them an opportunity because we all know that we live here in the land of opportunity so July of 2007 I entered boot camp it's a very undaunting time myself plus 79 other individuals and we're here to understand and learn what it is is to be an American for the first time boot camp was a great experience 3 months you really get beat up you have no idea but it taught me a lot my time in boot camp gave me discipline it taught me about attention to detail and it taught me how to be extremely Vigilant cuz unbeknownst to me just a few short months after graduating boot camp I'd find myself in Iraq and Afghanistan but before I actually got there I'd like to share with you the journey on how I got to Landing overseas it was October of 2008 my warant officer walks into my shop and he posed one small question who here would like to volunteer is about a shop of 70 of us and believe it or not at least 34 of the room raised their hand we started going through the filtered questions who doesn't have any issues out in town who doesn't have any you know legal issues so on so forth and the Hand slowly started to to come down and it came down to one other person in myself a good friend of mine by the name of Adam White So Adam and I he came down to us and we said you know what Adam we're going to we're going to decide this like men that's literally how it happened I did scissors and he did paper so then I say to my War officer I said well sir what did I win he says congratulations Bernardin you've won a trip to Iraq you want to go for a two out of three man so the stage was set I was to deploy to Iraq now I'd like to share with you a little bit of history about our armed services there's something that you learn to do in the United States military and it's called you render a salute and the salute is a it's a form of respect but I'd like to give you a little history about our salute at least in the American culture you see we salute with our Palm hidden anyone know why it's to say that we have never been conquered we are an unconquerable country because of our United States military less than 1% of our entire populace today 318 million Americans living here in America less than 1% have has ever served in the United States military 5% of our populace is unemployed now when you compare this amongst 318 million people this it's a really pretty good statistic just 5% but what if I told you that out of that 5% 3.5% makes up our veteran community I want a trip to Iraq head it out April 29th of 2009 we touchdown in Iraq I remember it because it was my sister's birthday and the the day we touched down we got in this Convoy and we were headed to our camp camp bua and about three clicks outside of Camp saw something that I'd never seen in my life for the first time I seen these mortars arcing over the very camp that I was assigned to go spend the next 384 days of my life at this is where I'm assigned to you sure so that was my first day in Iraq about five months from that initial experience I walked into work to receive an email quite short quite simple please line up outside the brown mile at 10:00 a.m. now many of you are asking what is the brown mile the camp where I was stationed at Camp bua it was a detainment facility my unit Naval provisional dainy Battalion 6 we're the last Navy unit to go through Iraq and we were in charge of the care custody in control of some 10,000 plus detainees presently today known as Isis but at the time they were just extremists for 14 hours a day for over a year we were to make sure that these men and or women were contained and didn't threaten our American way of life so on this cold Iraq cold day in September I opened this email was actually September mber 11th of 2009 very simple request please line up outside the brown mile now as I make my way to the brown mile what it is is it's it's about a mile long stretch of sand that separates where the detainees are housed and where the service members reside because we all live on the same Ford operating base so 0950 rolls around I make I start to make my way up the brown Mile and I'm taking a back cuz hundreds of hundreds of hundreds solar I'm sorry Sailors soldiers and Marine have lined up facing each other for about almost a mile down this brown mile now why as we stood there everything started to unfold in front of us and you would think that we all knew what was going on but little did we know just what we were getting ready to witness you see two medical Humvees started to come from my far back left two green Humvees with a red cross on them each was carrying a body an American that decided that they would give their life for a country that didn't even know their name for a people that probably never even knew their V and as these Humvees started to round the corner and I could see the humy coming and from my peripheral I saw the person standing beside me and with no Direction no One pointing to this person letting them know it was it was as if we already knew what to do and his arm slowly came up and he rendered his salute and as the front of that Humvee came towards me I rendered mine and I held it there all the way until the Humvees both passed me and in the distance two Blackhawks you could hear him shuttering down now mind you no one knows what's going on but everything is taking place as if in a conductor is directing an orchestra and it's so beautiful to be a part of something so so stoic and these Black Hawks land and we see several members from the units they go to these medical Humvees they pull out these caskets with flags draped over them and they place them each one on their perspective respective Blackhawks and the entire time over two 300 people are standing standing there paying their respects the Hilo flies off it's the most eest silence you've ever experienced in your life you look around and everyone has basically the same understanding and we turn and we make our way back to where we're supposed to be you see in war the enemy doesn't have to be good they just have to be lucky my last day in Iraq I was welcomed by another one of these events January 10th 2010 my relief unit had already come and we had already trained them and we were getting ready to leave country so we decided before we would leave we would throw a big social with them hey we had it you guys got it have fun with it so in the midst of us experiencing this jovial setting this time we're all outside alarms start to go off you look up you see mortars arcing over you this is where that training kicks in everyone snaps in action now you're looking for a bunker and bunkers hold about 30 to 40 Personnel but we're in this bunker 80 people strong climbing on top of each other for our own safety but you see in this bunker no one's like there's not enough room for you in here things like race and ethnicity and color doesn't matter and in this bunker I witnessed something that forever changed my life here I was getting ready to leave the war in this unit that was replacing my unit these young men and women were inside this bunker visibly shaking they were asking questions like is this for real is this really happening and all I could think was how is it that I'm going to be able to leave these young men and women behind 201122 I volunteered to go out to Iraq I'm sorry Afghanistan Kabul Afghanistan I'd be doing Logistics support my job was to Convoy to some of the most remote locations and provide supplies to our brothers and sisters your sons and daughters I became known as one of the three wise men every time they would see me I would be coming with gifts even though there was no part of my job which I enjoyed you see in country the safest place you can be is on your camp and the moment you leave the camp your numbers go down I have over 200 completed successful missions in Afghanistan alone and I don't say this out of arrogance I truly say this to be humble because I can tell you of guys who just went on one don't have the fortune to stand here on this red circle and share with you their story Iraq and Afghanistan taught me a lot taught me about being American talk me about the American Spirit the American culture taught me what sacrifice meant but it also told me and taught me of what was to come after I came back you see I came back to a world where less than 1% had ever been in scen and we were representing the 100% cuz today we live in a country where sad to say it's out ofsight out of mine if the problem doesn't affect me then it's not my problem but let me ask you this when terrorism strikes whose problem is it it's our problem and collectively we say let's go get them now let me ask you this who is let's today our veterans face some pretty staggering statistics 5% unemployment 3.5 are veterans we lose 22 veterans a day to suicide today we have lost more veterans to SU side than we have from both Wars of Iraq and Afghanistan lastly we have a healthare system where these men and women are sent pills because the line to make an appointment so long there's not enough doctors so you're getting appointments well past 30 days so they'll send you the prescription to pacify you in the meantime now this is my fear having exposed holds all these truths to you all let me ask you this who in their right mind today would want to volunteer in the military knowing that when you come out there's nothing set up for you to help you succeed you see I was fortunate that after I had come out I had given up on everything and I had come to find this guy right here who would come to change my life bronze is my service dog I can't sit here and EXP explain to you just everything that he does for me to help get through my day the guy but I can assure you at a moment's call he's ready but I want to share these things with you so let me ask you you approach a young man and woman you say hey join your military so they say why so I can spend four to six years of my life defending this country and then I get out and I'm either unemployed possibly committing suicide or I'm standing in long lines at the hospital you see just 43 years ago in this country there was something called a draft now if we don't fix these negative statistics that Encompass our veteran anyone would be reluctant from joining and we know what happens when we don't have enough people that voluntarily sign up you now have what's called a draft I'm asked a lot what inspires me as Leaders I believe it comes from believing dreaming hoping and inspiring I want to share two important people with you today this is my father and my daughter this is the young man that immigrated from Haiti in the early 80s at 16 years old he hopped on a boat not knowing what would happened to him to come here to give me a chance today to change the American culture and today this is my daughter all of 8 years old this is the very person that has inspired me my entire life to go to places like Iraq and Afghanistan what inspires you Emanuel these words exactly when I die I ask myself when they ask my daughter who was your father what did your father do those very next words now keep in mind the veteran that's to come home tomorrow what culture will they come home to what family will they see thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]