Protector of Those Who Cannot Protect Themselves

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After escaping conflict in Afghanistan as a child, Pvt. Atiqullah Assadi was called to serve to protect those around the world who can’t protect themselves.

(U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Daniel Lobo)

Transcript

Should I start?

[Interviewer] Yeah.

Oh, okay. My name is Atiku Assadi, Private. From Detroit, Michigan.

[Interviewer] Where are you originally from?

Originally from Afghanistan.

Originally from Afghanistan. I would love to return, you know, it’s beautiful there. It reminds me of Colorado and Washington. It’s similar you know, other than the parts where, unfortunately, where the extremism, you know, the terrorists took over and stuff so, people start getting scared and try to, you know, leave home. You know I remember it very vividly. I remember waking up by, you know, masked men. They kidnapped my father and my brothers from, on the way coming from the Mosque. They had a truck outside the house, they were putting everything, I mean every single thing as small as a needle basically, you know, looting the whole house. They walked me and my brother a couple streets down and I saw my father. And I was crying, you know I was young. I was crying and you know I was telling them please don’t kill my father, don’t kill my father. And my father heard me. And my father had a smile on his face, you know, he said don’t cry, son, we’re stronger. These days we’ll leave, these days we’ll go away. Just have faith. I started realizing that, you know, (stammering) The extremists, which was Taliban or Isis or any of these people, they don’t have a home on Earth, you know, and they should not have a home on Earth. I felt like I should be able to help out and do something you know, to help other people and try and eliminate these people. So here I am, you know, here I am. My mom and my dad always said that we should always be thankful in this country because we have everything, you know, we have shopping centers, you know, we want something, we go right down the street, we’ll go buy whatever we want. We have hospitals, we have everything. You know, a lot of people, you know, they don’t have this, especially back home, we don’t have this, you know, people living in the mountains, they have to travel days and days to get to just a clinic. I decided I want to serve. To go ahead and fight against extremism, you know, fight against extremism and you know and serve for the country.

[Man] So help me God.

So help me God.

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