WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — They are serving the country and now serving our communities.
Ahead of Veterans Day on Saturday, three Triad firefighters are sharing their stories about their time in the military and why their service didn't stop there.
Chris Marsh served in the Marines for four years. He said he went overseas to places like Africa, the Middle East, and Cuba.
"Third-world countries are a little bit different here than in America, so it gave you a better appreciation for what we have here," Marsh said. "It was a very humbling experience."
Marsh said the life experiences it gave him made him who he is today.
"I was 19 years old, just a young kid who probably wasn't ready for what I had to do, but it made me who I am today," Marsh said. "It was very helpful, especially in the career that I am now, for leadership, experience, and dealing with the different things that we do daily here in Greensboro."
Marsh is now a senior firefighter for the Greensboro Fire Department.
Antinain Knight served in the Air Force for 12 years. He went on four tours with the security forces team as a Military Police Officer.
Knight said there are a lot of stories he has from going on those tours, but one he remembers most was when he worked as a tower guard at a pedestrian gate in Afghanistan.
"Local Afghans would utilize that gate and get medical treatment, so they would come in and get help," Knight said. "I got a feel for some of the people that come in there all the time and I noticed that there's one girl who kept coming in, she was 13/14 years old, and she started coming in with a lot of bruising and things like that. I kind of helped foster an investigation and from that point on, she's still kept coming through the gate, but I noticed that she didn't have any more bruising, so I felt I made a little impact there to someone locally, a young girl. I have a daughter who's 14 so it just kind of hits me a little differently."
Knight said there were a lot of sacrifices made while serving our country.
"It's not just death that we experience, its to not be there at home, not to be there when a family member passes away, not to be there when your child was born," Knight said. "I had to watch my child be delivered via Skype and just not being able to be that support that you normally were able to provide for your loved ones."
Knight said aside from family, seeing people get hurt was hard to watch.
"Dealing with your brothers, all of those guys getting hurt death, losing limbs, not going home the same way they came," Knight said. "That's some of the things that, as military members, we juggle things from back home, we juggle the things that we currently deal with and we try to handle those things in the best way we can."
Knight is now a firefighter for the Winston-Salem Fire Department.
Cesar Munoz served in the Marines for five years. He said he worked to train other forces and served in two batteries.
"Whether you like somebody, whether you hate somebody, you trust them with your life, it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from," Munoz said. "That was my favorite aspect of my time in the military, that everybody is just a big family."
Munoz said it was difficult to process some of the things he saw abroad. He said coming back after deployment was difficult as well.
"We got back from deployment, we had several losses, and the way we mourn was very different," said Munoz. "We hiked with the family members. We did a 20-mile hike to this mountain in California, where we put the dog tags of the fallen and the boots, and we talked about the good memories and bad ones. It showed the depth of character of the people who were willing to do this for this one individual. It showed the support for the family. We worked as a community on the worst of times and that was very impactful on me."
Munoz is now a firefighter for the Winston-Salem Fire Department.
Marsh, Knight, and Munoz said there were a lot of sacrifices made, but once they got back home, the urge to keep serving didn't stop.
"I was kind of missing that sense of belonging and doing something to help someone else," Marsh said. "After I got out I was kind of lost, you know, you leave a very demanding career. My wife wanted me to do something that would still keep my mind running because I'm a pretty active person, so I chose to become a firefighter in New Jersey, and then down here to be a career firefighter and still give back to the community."
"I love helping people, I do," said Knight. "I love being a part of a team."
"Everybody's down, everybody has a day where it's not great and I'd like to be the person that comes in and helps," Munoz said. "I loved the fact that we could be there for somebody at the worst time, make an impact, and make a difference."
All three said serving the community gives them purpose and they wouldn't have it any other way.
"We trust each other and we want to make sure we go home at the end of the night, but also making sure that we're providing the right service to the citizens here," said Marsh. "I can say probably every single one of us here, we are willing to put our lives on the line for someone we've never met before and may never see again, it weighs on you a little bit, but that's our job and that's what we're here to do."
Their advice to support the vets this holiday is to give care packages to those currently serving, support organizations who assisted veterans, and say thank you to those who served.
"There are so many different ways," Knight said. "There are guys who are deployed now, so what I would probably suggest to someone if they want to step outside of their box and show appreciation for the guys who continue to serve their country and protect their country, I would encourage you to reach out to possibly a recruiter or reach out to one of these military organizations and get one of the deployment locations addresses and send them a care package. Get together some cards get together, some candy, some necessities, and shaving cream, deodorant. Things like that go a long way and to receive goodies like that from strangers, to receive a note like that from a kid, it goes a long way of boosting the spirits to the ones that are separated from their families or separated from their friends. I think something like that is very small and I think that gesture goes a long way."
"We don't do it for the thank you, but it's always appreciative because you don't know what these veterans have gone through, some more than others," said Marsh. "It's just good to hear, if a citizen sees you and they say just the simple thank you drive it home."
"I still have a scarf that a little girl sent to me and the scarf was full of holes, but I still have it in my closet," said Munoz. "It means so much to somebody that's out there doing stuff. The sacrifice they make is huge, so the little things matter. I would also say pray for the people who gave everything, including their lives. Pray for the people that are left behind, the people that come back with the trauma, to help these programs with people that have PTSD, to be supportive and patient with the guys that come back broken, to help them because they gave their all and to help the people that are broken now."